Stars:
Dan Aykroyd, Amelia Heinle, Devon Gummersall, Christopher Cousins, Mario
Roccuzzo, John Chu, and Theresa Russell
Writers:
Cary Solomon, Chuck Konzelman, Max Enscoe, and Anne de Young
Based
On A Story By: Mark “Crash” McCreery, Cary Solomon, and Chuck Konzelman
Director:
Scott Zehl
Feature
length: 90 minutes
Extras:
Featurette, Photo Galleries, Trailers, Filmographies, and Web Links
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 and French Language Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean,
Thai, and
Chinese Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 28
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Stereo Surround Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2002
Home
Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Quentin
is a nerdy comic book fanatic and security guard at a biochemical research
facility where classified military research on spiders has been performed. He
lives in a “skid row” like tenement building in a neighborhood beguiled with
crime. His neighbor is a beautiful young woman (Amelia Heinle) with a heart of
gold, but he is too afraid to ask her out. One night a robbery attempt at the
lab ends in his partner’s death and Quentin is fired from his job just in time
to have his picture taken for the front page of the newspaper as the world’s
worst aspiring hero. Impetuously Quentin injects himself with the compound the
lab has been developing without regard for the consequences.
After
a brief period where he suffers flu like symptoms, Quentin awakes like a
refreshed man with improved self-confidence and superhuman strength. He soon
discovers he can even spin a web like his favorite comic book hero, but unlike
that hero, Quentin’s powers come at a higher price as he slowly grows to
become more aggressive and takes on the outer appearance of spider, complete
multiple appendages and all. Only the woman he pines for and the gumshoe (Dan
Aykroyd) on the case can help him retain what little humanity he has left in one
last desperate act.
This
is great little popcorn horror flick that has a feel to it that is somewhat
reminiscent of the 1950’s B-movies like “Little Shop Of Horrors” and a bit
of “The Fly” to create a nightmare one might expect Spider-Man’s “Peter
Parker” to have on a bad night. A part of the “Creature Features” film
series released to DVD by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment featuring
state-of-the-art creature effects by Stan Winston Studio and inspired by the
Arkoff horror classics of the ‘50s, “Earth Vs. The Spider” is a somewhat
campy romp through the dark side of hero fantasies. Aykroyd plays the film
straight without going overboard and Theresa Russell appears in the film in a
somewhat wasted role as Aykroyd’s unhappy lush of a wife.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment presents “Earth Vs. The Spider” in a both an
anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio and a full-framed (1.33:1) aspect
ratio on a dual layered DVD. Both transfers look good with minimal grain and no
color bleeding. A full English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is provided
along with a French Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack and English Captions and
Closed Captions as well as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean Thai, and Chinese
Language Subtitles encoded on to the DVD and available for both presentations as
options.
There
is a short near 2-minute teaser behind-the-scenes featurette and a mix a color
and black and white still galleries that include “Monster Sketches,”
“Building The Monster,” “Behind-The-Scenes Photos,” and “Production
Shots.” There is a trailer for the “Creature Features” series on DVD as
well as other genre films available on DVD from Columbia TriStar Home
Entertainment, which include “Urban Legend,” “Fright Night,” “I Still
Know What You Did Last Summer,” and the original “13 Ghosts.”
Filmographies for Dan Aykroyd and Stan Winston wrap up the extra features on
this DVD.
The
menus are well rendered and easy to navigate. “Earth Vs. The Spider: Creature
Features” is available now on DVD-Video from Columbia TriStar Home
Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.