In some ways, this _Itsy Bitsy_ reminds of _The Babadook_ where a single mother deals with stress while moving into a new home with her child(ren). Add _Dark Water_, _The Ring_, and _Lights Out_ to that too, I guess. I like the added "legend" behind the spider. The son reminds me of one of my cousin's sons; good intentions and has to take care of his little sister who happens to be afraid of spiders. This is something I would tell friends (who are afraid of spiders) about, haha. The creature may not be as big as the ones in _Eight Legged Freaks_ nor normal-sized like in _Arachnophobia_, but large enough to be "unusual size"; what I would call, A.O.U.S. (arachnids of unusual size). Bruce Davison looks so different now, I couldn't even recognize him until credits rolled. The one familiar face I did recognize was the actor who plays the kid who works in the arcade in _Stranger Things_ and that Skittles commercial. It's a decent indie spooker with neat practical effects for the creature and some body horror. Though it sort of suffers a bit with its much focus on the human drama aspect than the horror itself. There's potential but I hope a sequel would be better if they ever make one.

A great creature feature will generally have compelling moments of dramatic tension and personal interactivity to drive up the character development, making you care about the people who spend the majority of the movie facing up against the big bad. _Itsy Bitsy_ goes the other way on that, it injects a couple moments of big spider to break up the uncomfortable family drama. This works... less... good.

Still better than 90% of the "a giant (x animal) is coming for you" movies.

_Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._