Upon its release this was dubbed a "Thrill-omedy" (that is a thriller mixed with comedy and a term that was, thankfully, never used again) as big city doctor Jeff Daniels and family move to a closed-minded small California town and end-up having to fight off some deadly poisonious spiders who have been bred from a rare Venezuelan spider that hitched a ride there via a coffin.

With enough creepy crawlies to give people who have the title problem the "willies"; this completely watchable effort may be a bit tame for the more hardcore of horror fans out there but thanks to having well drawn characters, some good "small town" mood and lots of pleasing "near miss" scenes it turns out much better than you may expect.

Daniels does fine in the lead, there's an alright supporting cast and John Goodman (who at the time was near the peak of his popularity being on the sit-com Roseanne) almost steals the show as a comic relief exterminator. This marked producer Frank Marshall's directorial debut, he'd also go on to do the awful Congo five years later.

Directed By: Frank Marshall.
Written By: Don Jakoby, Wesley Strick.

Starring: Jeff Daniels, Julian Sands, Harley Jane Kozak, Brian McNamara.