Fan CastingArachnophobia

Entomologist Dr. James Atherton searches the Amazon rainforest with the hope of discovering new species of insects and arachnids finding a very aggressive new species of spider. The spider is captured and chloroformed for research; and is later revealed to be lacking sex organs, thus making it a drone, or soldier. A nature photographer, Jerry Manley unknowingly has a fertile (non-drone) male spider of the same species jump into his backpack, later that day sneaking into his sleeping bag and biting him. Manley has a massive seizure from the venom and dies. The remainder of the scientists take his body back to the United States, blaming Manley's death on a fever. The spider crawls into the box and is sealed in with the corpse. Manley's body arrives at the funeral home in his hometown of Canaima, California. The spider makes it outside, only to be picked by a crow until the spider bites it and it falls to the ground dead, in front of the barn of the Jennings family. Ross Jennings is a family physician, who had moved to the town from San Francisco. He faces a lack of patients due to elderly rival Sam Metcalf, who was supposed to retire and shift his patients to Ross, but decided to maintain his practice. The Amazonian spider mates with a female domestic house spider and makes a nest in Jennings' barn, producing hundreds of infertile drone offspring, all of which have a lethal bite. Ross, along with his son Tommy, has arachnophobia, making them targets of ridicule to wife Molly and daughter Shelly. Ross's first patient, Margaret Hollins, dies after being bitten. Metcalf diagnoses a heart attack, although Ross suspects that something else was at work. After a spider also kills a football player whom Ross treated, he becomes known to the town as "Dr. Death". When Metcalf himself is bitten, in his own bedroom, and dies, Ross suspects deadly arachnids could be infesting the town. Ross and county coroner Milton Briggs perform an autopsy on the victims and confirm Ross' suspicion that the deaths were caused by spider bites. Atherton arrives in town with his assistant Chris Collins, joining Briggs, Sheriff Lloyd Parsons and exterminator Delbert McClintock in the spider investigation. They discover that the killer spiders have a short life expectancy due to being a mixed breed. Atherton tells them that the spiders are soldiers, sent out to eliminate potential threats for the general male spider. He also learns that the general spider produced a queen, which it likely mated with to produce a second nest someplace, guarded by the queen, which could produce fertile offspring. Atherton elaborates that the transplanted spiders can progressively expand their territory, possibly culminating in their worldwide dispersal. The group sets out to destroy both nests and kill the queen and general. Deducing that the nest is in his barn, Ross sends Delbert to destroy it. Delbert finds Atherton dead, having been bitten by the general after disturbing the web. Chris gets the Jennings family out of their infested house, but Ross falls through the floor into his wine cellar, which turns out to be the spiders' second nest, guarded not only by the queen but also the general spider. After electrocuting the queen, Ross battles the general while also attempting to burn the second egg sac. He becomes trapped underneath fallen debris, with the general about to deliver the killing strike, when Ross flings the general into the fire. As the egg sac hatches, the general jumps out of the fire. Ross shoots it with a nail gun and the projectile sends the burning spider into the egg sac, destroying the nest with fire and ending the plague. The Jennings family immediately moves back to San Francisco, appreciating city life once more, despite such minor inconveniences as earthquakes.