The insect world is full of creepy specimens that humans would gladly cross the road to avoid, and when a horror movie spider is featured in Hollywood films, the results are usually quite entertaining. For years, spiders and other insects have played a huge role in scaring the pants off of moviegoers, especially those with bug phobias. The best — and worst — thing about horror movie spiders and bugs is how these fictional creepy-crawlies display a range of body-horror-inducing features not present in nonfictional invertebrates. Seeing them in a terrifying role in a film is enough to keep people from sleeping soundly at night.

The introduction to spiders and insects in movies has been around for a very long time. The entire plot of the classic 1950s sci-fi horror movie Them! is about giant bugs attacking a town. During that period, the advent of giant mutated bugs and other creatures roared to life after the atomic bomb in World War II, and the remained popular along with the more popular Godzilla franchise. In more recent years, the horror movie spiders and insects became more realistic, which at the same time, made them even more terrifying for regular audience members.

11 Creepshow (1982)

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George A. Romero directed the anthology horror movie Creepshow with a screenplay by Stephen King. The last segment of the movie was called "They're Creeping Up on You" and it had a horrifying life-and-death battle with a never-ending swarm of cockroaches. Upton Pratt is a cruel businessman who has been dodging phonecalls from a woman who blames him for her husband's death. He also mocks those who work around him, and that comes back to bite him when he starts to find more and more cockroaches in his penthouse. His fate seems well deserved, but for anyone who has a fear of cockroaches, this might be a little too much.

10 Arachnophobia (1990)

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Amblin Entertainment put out this incredibly creepy comedy/horror film in 1990 to the chagrin and horror of arachnophobes the world over. The story takes place in a small Californian town which is set upon by a lethal species of Venezuelan tarantula that mates with a local house spider to create a super-deadly strain of horror movie spider. These ultra-aggressive spiders begin killing the townsfolk in a variety of disturbing ways as they encroach on the surrounding area. It's up to an arachnophobic doctor, a brilliant scientist, and an overzealous pest control guy to save the day.

9 The Fly (1986)

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While the 1958 original is by far a great choice for those who love a classic horror film, the 1986 remake of The Fly does it far better — provided you have a strong stomach. Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a brilliant scientist whose DNA is inadvertently infused with a common housefly at the genetic level. As his fly DNA begins to take over, Brundle starts losing various body parts in a number of grotesque ways. As his physiology changes, his human side is crushed while the fly takes over, and the end result is nothing short of horrifying. It's a classic that never gets old.

8 Them! (1954)

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By today's standards, Them! is a tame and lighthearted watch, but to moviegoers in 1954, it must have been absolutely terrifying. It follows a similar pattern of 1950s horror films such as Godzilla, which capitalized on the nuclear scare to create gigantic monsters out of atomic testing. It's also far ahead of its time in terms of effective scares, showcasing traumatized children, grisly death scenes and claustrophobic, dark environments that help set a scary tone. It's a shame this kind of movie has largely gone out of fashion over decades.

7 Tarantula (1955)

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If the concept of a 100-foot-tall tarantula barreling through the countryside sounds frightening, that's because it is. While the 1950s wasn't the best decade for a movie based on such a premise, it did succeed with the giant bug movie, Tarantula, another horror film about a normal creature that mutates to a massive size due to exposure to nuclear material. The movie makes clever use of superimposed video on top of video to create the illusion of a gigantic tarantula, and the largely silhouetted body of the horror movie spider helps sell the ominous scares. It has all the makings of a super-fun, creepy 1950s horror film that can actually be shared with the entire family.

6 Frogs (1972)

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George McCowan's 1972 horror film Frogs didn't score well with critics, but it is one of the creepiest bug-based horror films ever to hit the screen. The story revolves around a cameraman who finds himself on an island owned by the super-wealthy Crockett family, the patriarch of which has been using pesticides to kill the local fauna. Soon, the creatures on the island (led by an army of frogs) begin rebelling and killing the humans on the island. The deaths are visceral and grisly, with everything from horror movie spiders to leeches and rattlesnakes having a go at the fleeing humans.

5 Mimic (1997)

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Mimic took an interesting, albeit familiar premise and tweaked it enough to stand apart. Mira Sorvino played Dr. Susan Tyler, an entomologist who creates a hybrid insect to deal with a strain of cockroaches spreading a deadly disease in Manhattan. Years later, she learns that her creation has evolved to the point where it can mimic a human and now poses an even larger threat to the world. Most audiences would find the concept of large mutated insects stalking humans through dimly lit corridors and tunnels to be an unnerving prospect. Mimic does it well, and it still delivers the scares to this day.

4 Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

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This comedy horror film starring David Arquette tried to capitalize on the high-energy laughs and scares of Arachnophobia, but on a larger scale. In Eight Legged Freaks, a collection of spiders grows to insanely large proportions after being exposed to toxic materials. The film is notable for showcasing a number of different horror movie spider species, all of which have their own distinct attack style. From behemoth tarantulas to jumping spiders chasing after a pack of dirt-biking kids, there's lots for arachnophobes to love and hate about the film. It manages to achieve an excellent balance between light-hearted comedy and genuine scares, as well as an early Scarlet Johansson appearance.

3 The Deadly Mantis (1957)

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1950s monster movies took a detour from the nuclear warfare theme with The Deadly Mantis. In this story, a gigantic mantis is unearthed from millions of years of suspended animation in the polar ice caps to wreak havoc on Washington, D.C. The film takes one of the coolest insects in the animal kingdom and turns it into a relatively entertaining sci-fi horror film where yet another gigantic bug accosts screaming women through windows, shrugs off the military and provides audiences with a fun-filled Saturday afternoon romp.

2 The Swarm (1978)

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Who knew that killer bees could cause mass disaster on a biblical scale? That's exactly the question posed in The Swarm, a classic action horror flick starring Michael Caine about a massive swarm of killer bees who have made man their ultimate target. The bees cause all manner of destruction on an unprecedented scale, from derailing a train to turning cities into kill zones where no one, not even children are safe. Not particularly gory, but definitely unsettling in an age of fearmongering regarding Africanized honey bees invading America.

1 Phase IV (1974)

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Phase IV goes far beyond what is considered a normal horror movie about creepy crawling bugs vs. humans. Every frame of the film is soaked in abstract 1970s motifs made famous in films like Zardoz, The Andromeda Strain and Logan's Run, but the premise is truly interesting. In this film, a hive of super-intelligent ants begins acting against humanity, forcing them to decide whether to try and communicate with their insect opponents, or destroy them outright. It's a psychadelic film with an ominous ending that few films can claim to equal.