Tarantula

Yesterday evening I watched a 1955 film called Tarantula, directed by Jack Arnold. It was set in the American desert where two idealistic biochemists are working on a serum which causes animals to grow to giant size, which they hope will cure world famine. However, while their experiments with animals are successful, when they accidentally inject themselves with the serum it causes grotesque disfigurement, madness and a painful death. However a tarantula which has been injected by the serum escapes and quickly grows to giant size while eating cattle, and before long, humans. The special effects are very good, by the standards of the time, and the desert locations are effective, also a giant spider can't help but generste some chills. Clint Eastwood has a very early, uncredited, cameo as a fighter pilot.

Later on I watched a 1993 film called Fire in the Sky, directed by Robert Lieberman, and set near a small town in Arizona in 1975. Heading home from work one day, a group of lumberjacks notice a strange object in the woods. One of the group, Travis Walton (played by D.B. Sweeney) goes to investigate, but approaching the object he is struck by a beam of light which knocks him unconscious, assuming that he is dead, his friends panic and drive off, but return quickly to discover that both Travis and the object have vanished without a trace. A large-scale search fails to turn up any trace of Travis, and tensions quickly increase between the lumberjacks and the local community, and the local police quickly come to believe that there may have been foul play. However, five days after his mysterious disappearance, Travis Walton reappears, and the mystery becomes what hapened to him during those five days. The film is based on a true story, of one of the most famous cases of alleged alien abduction. The highlight of the film are the genuinely effective scenes detailing Walton's experiences of his time missing, which were changed from his actual reports, which the film studio deemed too dull.

Today was pretty quiet at work. Tomorrow is my last day before the holidays, so I am looking forward to that. I am ready for a break!

I got back at around quarter past five and made some microwaved spaghetti bolognese for my meal.