Tarantula

Tarantula (1955) is a classic Universal sci-fi horror you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jack Arnold — the same filmmaker behind Creature from the Black Lagoon. Eighty tight minutes of desert-town dread, no filler.

Professor Deemer is working in an isolated lab on a nutrient formula that accelerates biological growth. When a test tarantula escapes, it doesn't stop growing. The local doctor grows suspicious after Deemer's assistant turns up dead with a grotesque physical condition, and ranchers start losing livestock to something enormous out in the desert. By the time anyone gets a good look, the spider is the size of a building.

Arnold made this straight-faced and lean, which is exactly what gives it staying power seventy years on. It belongs to the wave of giant-creature pictures that used science-run-amok as a stand-in for nuclear anxiety — but the craft is better than the genre usually gets credit for. Sharp-eyed viewers will catch a very young Clint Eastwood as a jet pilot in the climax. Stream Tarantula (1955) online on iFILM.