Prepare for 8-legged freakiness with Arachnophobia remake

What's that on your shoulder? EW has confirmed that filmmaker Christopher Landon is set to write and direct Amblin Partners' remake of the 1990 horror-comedy Arachnophobia. Aquaman director James Wan and his Atomic Monster colleague Michael Clear are producing the film while Frank Marshall, who directed the original, is an executive producer on the new version.

In the 1990 film, Jeff Daniels played a small-town doctor who has to deal with an infestation of deadly spiders. The movie also starred Julian Sands, Harley Jane Kozak, and John Goodman who memorably portrayed an exterminator (or as his character calls himself, an "infestation manager").

"Arachnophobia is a skin-crawling horror film that never loses its cheeky, throwaway edge," EW critic Owen Gleiberman wrote in his B+ review of the film back in 1990. "Billed as a 'Thrill-omedy' (what an awful word! — it sounds like somebody got sick from too many rides on the Whip), the movie was coproduced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment and Walt Disney Studios' new Hollywood Pictures division. Together, these two paragons of sweet-natured escapism have come up with a gross-out flick even Grandma could love. Arachnophobia will make you jump a few times, but it isn't a relentless, primal scare-a-thon like Jaws or Alien. It gives you the willies in a cheery, presentable way."

Landon's previously directed 2014's Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, 2015's Scouts Guide to the Apocalypse, 2017's Groundhog Day-inspired Happy Death Day, that film's 2019 sequel Happy Death Day 2U, and 2020's body swap horror-comedy Freaky. The filmmaker's writing credits include 2007's Disturbia and the second, third, and fourth Paranormal Activity films.

The news about Landon directing the Arachnophobia remake was initially broken by The Hollywood Reporter.

Watch the trailer for the original Arachnophobia below.

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