An obsessive-compulsive man is obligated to go through an experiential therapy on a woman in order to cure his arachnophobia.
8 Arañas Teaser from Lecanda Films on Vimeo.
The pivotal question in 8 Aranas is “What wouldn’t you do to cure your fear of spiders?” For the main character, sleeping with an obese, coffee-addict is at the bottom of his list but is what he ends up doing – all to put the 8th spider in her mouth as a form of therapy. His obsession with the fact that the average person swallows 8 live spiders during sleep drives this short film by Juan Lecanda.
This hilarious short film revolves around the obsessive arachnophobe statistics manager (Tipo), his therapist who may or may not be a crackpot (Hombre), and the lusty and obese coffee-addict (Chica) who the arachnophobe sleeps with to cure his phobia. While the actual visualization of the aforementioned act is in it of itself comical, the film’s best moments are at the very beginning and the very end. The witty banter between Tipo and Chica not only sets up the film but gives the viewer each character’s backstory right off the bat: a seemingly charming but shameless woman who only drinks coffee at bars and a well-to-do man who kidnaps and drugs women to force feed them 8 spiders as part of a healing process.
At the very end of Lecanda’s film, we see Tipo talking to his therapist about the progress he’s made only to find he is haunted by something completely new: a final scene of a strange ghostly and spider-like Chica dressed in a bridal dress cackling at him hanging from a web. 8 Aranas is an official selection of the New York City Independent Film Festival and will be shown during the festival’s run from October 12-18, 2015.