Director: Micah Gallo
Writer: Jason Alvino, Bryan Dick, Micah Gallo (Screenplay)
Starring: Bruce Davison, Elizabeth Roberts, Denise Crosby, Arman Darbo, Chloe Perrin, Treva Etienne, Matty Cardarople
Plot: Based on the centuries old poem, a family moves into a secluded mansion where they soon find themselves being targeted by an entity taking the form of a giant spider.
Tagline – Always check under the bed.
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Creature Feature
Story: Itsy Bitsy starts when Kara (Roberts) is moving her two young children Jesse (Darbo) and Cambria (Perrin) to a secluded mansion to become the carer for Walter Clark (Davison) away from the big city, a place where they could start a fresh life.
Walter has spent his life collecting items from around the world, some aren’t legal, with the latest big an ancient tribal egg, which gets smashed, releasing an evil from inside it, a spider that starts stalking Kara’s family.
Thoughts on Itsy Bitsy
Characters – Walter Clark has spent his life collecting objects from around the world, studying history, culture and folktales, his latest item is delivered to him, a tribal egg, which has a mythical story about tribal sacrifice around. His life in this world has created enemies and his health has started to catch up with him, which sees him needing a carer. Kara is the single-mother and nurse that has moved her family across the country to try and start something new, she is traumatised by the loss of one of her children, which sees her needing to turn to pills to get through the day, almost making her distant from her own kids. Sheriff Jane does notice Kara around town, she understands that she might have problems and might need a friend, showing her remorse to help her through the tough time she is facing. Jesse is the eldest sibling that must spend most of his days trying to look after Cambria, he is happy to, but is getting tired of not being able to see more from his life.
Performances – Bruce Davison is the big star of the film, he fills the role of the rich well without needing to play it too over the top, Elizabeth Roberts must give the most difficult performance, as her character must go through the emotional trauma of her life as well as looking strong to her kids. Denise Crosby is great to watch as the always calm sheriff with both the kids Arman Darbo and Chloe Perrin not putting a foot wrong through the film.
Story – The story here follows a broken family that are looking to start a new life, in a new town, only to find themselves coming under attack from a spider that has a cursed story behind it. This story does dive into the emotional trauma of losing a child, from the parent and siblings point of view well, with the old creature feature elements used to try and bring the family closer together once again. Where we could have had a lot more out of this film, was looking into Walter’s career in these ancient artefacts he has collected through the years, with one of them being the reason everything happens. The way the story unfolds is just like any creature feature, it slowly builds for the bigger attacks which is easy to watch, teasing us of potential ones along the way.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in this film comes from spider itself, it plays into anybody’s fear of them no matter how small or big they are, with the idea that this is coming from a bigger mysterious background.
Settings – The film uses to two houses for the most part of the horror, we see how the spider can be hiding anywhere in a room, used for some great shots, rather than just pure attacks.
Special Effects – We get some strong effects for the spider creature, it does show us how practical moments can still creature the real horror in films.
Scene of the Movie – The spider angles.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Could have learnt more about Walter’s life.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun creature feature that does look to dive into the real problems people are facing in life after personal loss.
Overall: Creature Feature 101.
