Arachnicide

{{Short description|2014 Italian horror film featuring giant spiders}}

{{Infobox television

| image = Arachnicide (2014 film) promotional poster.jpg

| image_upright = 1.0

| image_alt =

| caption = Promotional poster

| genre =

| creator =

| based_on =

| writer =

| screenplay =

| story =

| director = Paolo Bertola

| starring = Gino Barzacchi
Gabriel Cash
Riccardo Serventi Longhi
Crisula Stafida

| narrated =

| music = Erik Ekholm

| country = Italy

| language = Italian
English

| num_episodes =

| producer = Ruben Maria Soriquez

| editor = Paolo Bertola

| cinematography =

| runtime = 91 minutes

| company = See Thru Pictures

| budget = $670,950{{cite news |last=Craze |first=Baron |date=2014 |title=Arachnicide (2014) – By Baron Craze |url=http://www.roguecinema.com/arachnicide-2014-by-baron-craze.html |publisher=Rogue Cinema |access-date=26 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803224006/http://www.roguecinema.com/arachnicide-2014-by-baron-craze.html |archive-date=3 August 2016 |url-status=dead }}

| network =

| released = {{Start date|2014|4|27}}

}}

Arachnicide (also known as L9 Commando and Spiders) is a 2014 Italian made-for-television action horror film directed by Paolo Bertola and produced by Ruben Maria Soriquez.

Plot

After years of experimenting, a researcher succeeds in creating an incubator that accelerates plant and animal growth. The technology is controlled by a powerful criminal organisation and is being used to accelerate the growth of plants needed for manufacturing of illegal drugs and narcotics. To destroy the laboratories they operate, the United Nations organises an elite team of operatives known as the L9 Commandos.

The L9 Commandos are a task force composed of six of the best soldiers from different Special Forces Units. After successfully taking down the drug operation, the L9 Commandos are called on for an important mission in Albania. There, they discover that the incubator has created a group of colossal spiders.

Cast

Gino Barzacchi as Major Murra
Gabriel Cash as Lieutenant Kolman
{{interlanguage link|Riccardo Serventi Longhi|it|}} as Colonel Monti
{{interlanguage link|Crisula Stafida|it|}} as Dr. Sarti
{{interlanguage link|Andrea Graziani|it|}} as Narcotrafficker

Production

In 2014, Paolo Bertola served as the film's director, after having worked on another television film, Virtually Dead, which was broadcast in January of that same year. Bertola also acted as the film's editor, as well as a visual effects supervisor. The film was produced by See Thru Pictures on a budget of $670,950, under the working title of L9 Commando, and was distributed by Brain Damage Films in May 2016. On December 10, 2015, an official trailer for the film was uploaded to YouTube by Midnight Releasing.{{cite news |last=Gelmini |first=David |date=21 April 2016 |title=Giant Spiders Run Amok in Arachnicide Trailer |url=https://dreadcentral.com/news/162325/giant-spiders-run-amok-arachnicide-trailer/ |publisher=Dread Central |access-date=26 June 2016}}

Release

The film was released on DVD by Brain Damage on May 10, 2016.{{cite web |title=Arachnicide (2014) - Paolo Bertola |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/arachnicide-v654904/releases |website=Allmovie.com |publisher=Allmovie |accessdate=27 August 2018}}

Reception

Jeremy Wheeler from TV Guide awarded the film 1/4 stars, criticizing the film's acting, and poor special effects.{{cite web |last1=Wheeler |first1=Jeremy |title=Spiders - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings |url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/spiders/review/531381/ |website=TV Guide.com |publisher=Jeremy Wheeler |accessdate=27 August 2018}} HorrorNews.net gave the film a negative review, writing, "Horror with spiders common because one of the most well-known fears is arachnophobia. In many cases, this leads to fun movies about arachnids killing people. Arachnicide was not one of them. It felt too long, it had bad effects that weren’t even fun to look at, and it was ugly because of how certain scenes were filmed."{{cite web |last=Jesse |title=Film Review: Arachnicide (2014) |url=https://horrornews.net/112981/film-review-arachnicide-2014/ |website=HorrorNews.net |date=29 October 2016 |publisher=Jesse |accessdate=27 August 2018}}