When a tarantula owned by the inimitable fashion icon known simply as Buzz successfully escaped from a manmade prison in the 1990 instaclassic Home Alone, fear invaded the hearts of viewers otherwise left entirely overjoyed by the delightfully PG vibes of accomplished selfie organizer Macaulay Culkin. That terrifying creature, of course, would quickly make its way around much of the semi-abandoned McCallister residence before eventually crawling across Daniel Stern's face and promptly inspiring one of the greatest screams in cinematic history:
Legend.
Stern, who most recently took to Facebook to provide a bit of insight on what exactly working with the elusive Joe Pesci is really like, decided to give fans another glimpse behind the Home Alone curtain on Christmas Eve by sharing the previously untold story of Barry the Tarantula.
"People who meet me are always curious if the tarantula was real, if my scream was real, and if I was scared, crazy or both," Stern says. "The answer to all three of those questions is 'Yes.'" Though director Chris Columbus' original plan was to simply use a "life-like spider replica," which somehow sounds even more terrifying than an actual spider, that idea was quickly crushed in favor of the real thing:
As for the rumor that the iconic scream ("an homage to the shower scene in Psycho") was simply "mimed" so as not to anger the spider, Stern is quick to rebuke such nonsense. However, the best part of Stern's latest foray into Home Alone history is easily his theory on the difference between working with a poisonous spider and working with aforementioned god Joe Pesci:
Peep Stern's full post, which is well worth the read, right here.