Arachnophobia Alert: Earth vs. the Spider on AMC
Arachnophobia is the inordinate fear of spiders, and anyone with the condition may want to stay away from Earth vs. the Spider, airing on AMC Friday at 6:15 AM. The 1958 film stars a giant house-sized spider lurking in a cave that soon begins to kill members of a small town.
Earth vs. the Spider was released just after The Fly became a blockbuster, and while the spider never matched the fly in popularity, the two films contain some of the same elements. Earth vs. the Spider features a classic “law enforcement official who doesn’t get it until it’s too late” role, in this case, the sheriff of the small town:
Sheriff Cagle: [to a deputy after finding a desiccated body in a cave] Uh, you get back to town and make up a coroner's report. Just put down Jack Flynn as the name and the cause of death... uh...
Mr. Kingman, the local science teacher: It was a spider that drained all the liquid out of his body!
Sheriff Cagle: Just put down "cause unknown" and let the coroner worry about the rest. That's the trouble with you eggheads - you jump to conclusions! I know what I see and I see a dead man, but I don't see any spider.
Wow, is this guy clueless or what?
Also, keep your spidey senses alert for this classic death scene: one of the spider’s victims is the actor Hank Patterson, who would go on to play Mr. Ziffel on Green Acres, the “father” of Arnold the pig.




















Hi Tom,
Earth vs. the Spider also got some Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment from Joel and the Bots. MST3K was the sci-fi/comedy series that ran on Comedy Central and The Sci-Fi Channel for about 10 years. Remember seeing your favorite B flick, except with 3 silhouettes at the bottom riffing it with dry sarcasm? Earth vs. the Spider was one of the many favorites among MST3K fans. I enjoyed Earth vs. the Spider without the riffs, but let's be honest, some movies just had it coming. Although the show is no longer aired, there are several places on the internet to pick up old MST3K episodes. But I won't go into that, since we're all about SCARE here! Just thought this was worth mentioning. :)
Tiffany
Hi Tiffany-
Yeah, I was a big fan of Mystery Science Theater too, those guys could make the worst B-movie laugh-out loud funny. And that's saying something!
Thanks for your comment, enjoy the shows....