17. Arachnophobia

With so much about immigration in the news as of late, it is hard not to see Arachnophobia  as not somehow in dialog with the issue of middle America's obsession with being taken over by foreign invaders. Its release date was 1990, and immigration as well as relate concerns about the racial make up of America were certainly issues then as they are now, especially for bigots who remain a substantial portion of the American population. A particularly vicious breed of spider is accidentally taken from the Venezuelan Amazon back to an idealized, small town USA. It breeds with the white bread spiders of Canaima, perhaps a reference to Canaan, or maybe Cain himself, and produces a murderous breed of poisonous spiders that threaten to ruin the Heartland along with its traditional, country values. But don't worry (spoiler alert) the big city doctor, played by Jeff Daniels, recovers his manhood, overcomes his fear of spiders, and saves the "average" American's idea of how things used to, and therefore always should, be. And then for the sake fully returning the townsfolk back to their Eden and he to his, the good doctor moves his urban family back to the big city where there are more "native," natural disasters, such as San Franciscan earth quakes. The good, country folk are finally left in peace of their nostalgia. 

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