Films: Arachnid (2001)

Alias: Giant spider, giant centipedes, giant ticks

Type: Alien

Location: Jungle/Cave

Height/Weight: Ranges from that of baseballs to that of a cow.

Affiliation: Neutral

Summary: You remember that time a decade ago when some mosquitos got their proboscises on some alien blood? Well, if your alien arthropod thirst isn't quenched yet, it will be. Oh, how it will be...

History: In the jungles of an island on the South Pacific, an alien has crashed-landed, but before it could do anything more, it was killed by a massive alien spider it had been carrying. In fact, the alien seemed to have a whole cargo of alien arachnids, including ticks, centipedes, and of course, spiders. Now, a group of visitors are going to end up in a battle for survival alongside the tribesfolk before the beasts take over the place.

Notable Kills: The ticks and the spiders lay their eggs in people. What follows isn't pretty.

Final Fate: Just about every beastly arachnid is killed, though the main spider bites it by being forced into falling onto a stalagmite. That said, there is at least one spider still there...

Powers/Abilities: All of the aliens are incredibly venomous, and the spiders can coat their prey in digestive juices.

Weakness: Anything conventional.

Scariness Factor: 4.5-At first, you're greeted with a crappy CGI alien. Then his/her/their cargo shows up. These beasts are an arachnophobe's worst nightmare. The effects are terrifyingly convincing, and their designs, especially those of the spiders, are something out of a bug museum run by death metal artists and H.R. Giger. The next time you see an eight-legger with more fangs than necessary and/or can tower over your unconscious hide, RUN.

Trivia: -The spiders' ability to coat people in digestive juices is reflective of how regular spiders eat. They don't have mouths per se, and therefore must inject prey with digestive ensymes from their fangs so they can slurp the melted innards up like a carnivore-flavored milkshake.

-Ironically, director David Sholder isn't particularly fond of his own movie. He claims to have done it solely for the money, thought the script was dumb, and warns anyone against seeing it. Weird, considering this film was more than a few pegs above most b-movie fare surrounding him that year and for many years to come. Even Richard Dreyfus liked it.