Review: Tarantula

DVD: Tarantula (1955)

A giant guinea pig. A mutated man. An experiment gone horribly wrong. The titular tarantula which has grown bigger than a house. A young (uncredited) Clint Eastwood as a fighter pilot.

The above alone should already be tempting you to buy this title from Umbrella Entertainment.

The planet is heading for disaster as its food resources are beginning to struggle with an ever growing population. 2 billion people need food and a projected (as quoted by the scientist onscreen) 3 billion by 1975 and 3.6 billion by the year 2000 (in reality we’d already hit 6 billion by the year 2000, and are currently on 7+ billion!) will need some way of being fed. So work has begun on a new food source which can sustain everyone.

The experiments lead to huge growth on all of the test subjects, and when a tarantula escapes, it goes off on a killing spree of the local population.

Can the tarantula be stopped?

Of course it can. But how will it be stopped?

Featuring low budget special effects which add to its charm, Tarantula delivers thrills, chills (and laughs) that keeps you glued to the screen.

Yes it’s hokey, but that’s all part of its charm. Seeing a real life tarantula (badly) composited into the action as it’s blown in certain directions by jets of air, still draws me more into the action than a lot of cgi used today.

1930’s horror, 1950’s sci-fi and 1980’s action are my genres of choice, and this stands proud as a 1950’s sci-fi that does, and always will, get repeated viewings.

Review by Dave (host of 60 Minutes With) from a disc kindly supplied by Umbrella Entertainment.