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The Queen Spider is the secondary antagonist of the 1990 horror film Arachnophobia. She was produced by the General Spider and a common female house spider. She is part of the abnormally aggressive brood of spiders that would invade the setting of the film and seek to wipe out all other life-forms.
Biography
The Queen Spider was largely unseen for most of the movie and her role was also one of the more passive as she was responsible for building the second nest, helping to raise the young and teaching them how to spread and survive. She and the other spiders were abnormally aggressive due to the General Spider's influence, which made them seek to not just survive as a species but also actively work to eradicate any competing life-forms (including humans).
The Queen Spider would come into conflict with the main cast when she mated with The General and created a second nest, while the General Spider was largely responsible for ensuring the nest was protected the Queen Spider also had a similar role and thus when the nest was found she took to arms in defense of her young.
She would be killed in the resulting conflict, sparking the General Spider to go into a murderous rage to avenge his second mate (as well as his species, since without her there's a strong possibility they would go extinct).
Gallery
Trivia
- The Queen Spider is commonly mistaken for the original house-spider the General mated with, with many viewers assuming the house-spider somehow mutated into a venomous tarantula as a result of mating with the General. The spider expert in the film actually states that when the General mated with the house-spider, he produced a Queen along with the first batch of hybrids. The first batch were infertile but the General later mated with the Queen to produce a second batch which were said to have become fertile, and it was the second batch which the General thus protected so fiercely. This also means that the Queen herself is part of the original batch produced by the General and the house-spider, making her producing a second batch with the General a case of inbreeding, which is actually fairly common among certain animals. On this note, it is rather odd that the second batch of spiders would be fertile, given that inbreeding typically causes a lack of fertility.
- The Queen Spider is smaller than the General Spider, which is quite rare as female spiders tend to be much larger than their mates. This is explainable though as the General Spider is from a newly discovered species that is highly different from other species of spiders.
