Factual error: Jerry Manley's corpse wouldn't have been returned to his home town as depicted. He died in a foreign country outside the U.S. from what was thought to have been a fever, his corpse would have been quarantined for possible contamination and autopsied which would have quickly determined his real cause of death from the spider.
Factual error: The spider being fried by the fuse box simply can't happen. Fuses are insulated for that very reason.
Continuity mistake: When the General jumps out of the flames, one of his legs breaks off after he hits the ground. All eight legs are intact after he is blasted by the nail gun and crashes into his nest.
Other mistake: Irv and Blaire's death scene doesn't make sense. When Irv poured butter on the popcorn, he should've noticed the spider in the bowl. Also, when Blaire picked the spider up, she should've felt it. Both of them still appeared to be watching the TV after being bitten, which also didn't make sense. Why didn't they have seizures like the other victims?
Factual error: With Irv and Blaire, one of them picks up the handful of popcorn and presumably eats the spider. While inside the eater, the spider would bite and poison whoever it was inside. When they find both of them dead, the spider crawls out of one person. Why would it leave one body and actually take the trouble to go inside the other rather than just bite them on the skin like the others? It's not like it would crawl out and back into the bowl to be eaten by the other person.
Suggested correction: We actually don't see either Irv or Blaire "eat" the spider at all. We just see Blaire take a handful of popcorn with the spider inside. Next we see both dead bodies, and then a spider crawls out of Irv's nostril. So the spider could have bitten both people on their skin in short order and then crawled into Irv's body, for whatever reason, after he was already dead. Or, there could be two completely different spiders that killed the pair at around the same time. As the action happens off-screen, it can't be a factual error, we simply don't know exactly what happened.
The whole scene doesn't make sense. The fact that Irv pours the butter on the popcorn with the spider in the bowl, Blaire doesn't feel the spider in her hand when she picks it up with the popcorn, and they are still sitting in the same position watching Wheel of Fortune after being bitten. Only Irv's Coca-Cola can is lying on the floor with some popcorn pieces. The popcorn bowl is still on Blaire's lap, showing they did not have seizures to the spider's venom like the other victims. It also doesn't make sense that the spider doesn't bite Irv when he carries the bowl from the kitchen to the living room.
The mistake entry as written states that the spider is eaten by one person and then eaten by another, with both people dying afterwards. Since we do not actually see that happening, this doesn't count as a Factual Error. The fact that the victims do not seem to have violently seized prior to death should be submitted as a separate entry.
Factual error: Towards the end Ross pours wine on the egg sac to light it. Wine doesn't contain enough alcohol to ignite.
Suggested correction: He uses cognac and not wine, which is why it burns.
Revealing mistake: At the end when the dock 'kicks' the king spider off him into the fire, we hear it scream like a stuck pig. Then additional screams from the 'burning' spiders inside the pulsating nest, and when the doc torches both the king spider afterwards.
Suggested correction: Not sure how this is a mistake. Sure real world spiders don't making squealing noises but real world spiders also don't jump 30 feet or have venom potent enough to kill a human within seconds of being bitten.
It's a mistake because spiders cannot vocalize at all. The film creates a new spider species with exaggerated aspects of real life spiders: extremely potent venom, highly aggressive behavior, jumping ability, etc. What the film can't do is give the spiders traits they couldn't possibly have in real life.
Revealing mistake: When the flaming "general" spider is killed, there's several mistakes. When it leaps, it suddenly "freezes" in mid-air for a second before the nail hits it. Then, when we see the nail hit it, you can see a wire attached to it, plain as day, to yank it back. Then, when it hits the egg-sack, you can see several fake spiders attached to it, which don't move at all. Then the egg sack catches on fire, but the flames come from behind the sack, even though the general hit the front.
Factual error: The shadow of a spider climbing up the window makes a 'tick'ing sound as it moves, when spiders don't make sounds.
Revealing mistake: When Atherton is using his fog machine to spray up into the tree look to his left, you can see another spray of the fog being added to the tree by an unseen stagehand.
Visible crew/equipment: Near the end when the doctor and his family are getting attacked by the spider's, half are CGI and the others fake as you can see the Tech wires making them move. Then when he's lying on the floor collecting himself, there's a pulsating sack in the corner, with a fake spider leg sticking out.
Visible crew/equipment: When the explorer goes up into the loft to find the king spider, he taps the fake web string, says 'suppers ready" and then the fake spider dramatically shoots out from a tech wire 'screaming", and attacks him. (01:49:24 - 01:49:50)
Revealing mistake: When Margaret (the blood pressure lady?) gets settled for the night, one of the baby spiders is crawling toward the couch where she's sitting. In the very next shot that same spider is suddenly 'hiding' inside the lampshade above her and bites her.
Visible crew/equipment: Near the beginning when the men are hauling the equipment to their camp, you can see a crew members hand in the bush literally toss the fake giant spider on top of the passing equipment. (00:13:10)
Continuity mistake: After Becky's dad comes into the bathroom, and she screams, covering herself with the shower curtain, you can see her brother, who had died at the football game considerably earlier in the movie, through the bathroom's doorway, standing in the hall. It's only for a split-second, but as long as you're looking in the right spot, it's very clear.
Other mistake: When Dr Atherton injects the mouse with venom, the syringe is pointing up. But as the plunger is pulled nearly all the way back and the syringe is too large to be filled with venom, he would have injected the mouse with air. (01:17:00)
Revealing mistake: Near the end it is way obvious that the king spider is animatronic as it goes for the doctor, considering it's tech string is quite visible in the closeup. And it "hisses" as it's lowered.
Other mistake: When the exterminator steps on the little spider it makes a loud dramatic 'crunch' and then when he lifts his boot the bottom is overcovered in fake brown goo.
Revealing mistake: Two very different types of spiders are used in most of the shots. In the closeups they are larger, with bulbous legs, defined hairs, and big eyes.
Other mistake: The king spider moving up the docs leg at the end is animatronic, considering the way it moves, like a typical Halloween effect. But understandably because it was too risky to use a real one.
