{"id":235687,"date":"2026-07-04T22:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T22:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235687\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T22:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T22:26:09","slug":"making-friends-with-charlotte-webster-arachnophilia-film-director-works-towards-handling-a-tarantula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/235687\/","title":{"rendered":"Making friends with Charlotte Webster \u2014 \u201cArachnophilia\u201d film director works towards handling a tarantula"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n
\n \"<p>Ashleigh
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Ashleigh Guthrie, reptile manager at Pet Zone in Pittston, has gotten over her own fear of spiders, and was pleased to handle Charlotte Webster on a recent Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Screenwriter
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Screenwriter and director Sarah T. Schwab, at right, is determined that she will eventually handle a tarantula before asking actors to do so for the movie \u2018Arachnophilia,\u2019 which will be filmed in and around Scranton. She recently became acquainted with a spider named Charlotte Webster, shown on the wrist of Schwab\u2019s partner, Brian Long, at Pet Zone in Pittston. But Schwab didn\u2019t feel ready to handle the spider herself.<\/p>\n

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Years
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Years ago, Ashleigh Guthrie was afraid of spiders herself. But she overcame that fear, which is good because she comes into regular contact with them at Pet Zone in Pittston, where she works as reptile manager.<\/p>\n

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Spider
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Spider handler Bill Pambianco, at left, let Asheigh Guthrie do the spider handling on a recent Friday afternoon as he talked to Pet Zone visitors about spiders, including the Mexican Red-Knee Tarantula that is set to appear in an upcoming film.<\/p>\n

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n
\n \"<p>Spider
\n <\/a> <\/p>\n

Spider handler Bill Pambianco poses with screenwriter\/director Sarah T. Schwab at Pet Zone, where she is holding a plush spider. Soon, she hopes, she\u2019ll feel comfortable holding a real one.<\/p>\n

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u276e<\/a>
\n \u276f<\/a>
\n \t\t\t <\/p>\n

Sarah T. Schwab spent a good half hour Friday afternoon getting to know a spider named Charlotte Webster at the Pet Zone in Pittston.<\/p>\n

Schwab is the screenwriter and director of a movie called \u201cArachnophilia,\u201d which translates to \u201clove of spiders.\u201d And before Cardinal Flix, the independent company she co-founded with partner Brian Long, begins filming in and around Scranton in September, Schwab is determined to handle a tarantula.<\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s what she\u2019ll be asking actors to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to ask somebody to do something I wouldn\u2019t do myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That said, Schwab admits she\u2019s had a case of arachnophobia, or \u201cfear of spiders,\u201d ever since she saw the 1990 movie of that name in her youth.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the writer\/director didn\u2019t feel ready to touch Charlotte Webster herself. Even though Charlotte Webster was less intimidating than she had feared.<\/p>\n

She watched closely as Ashleigh Guthrie, the reptile manager at Pet Zone, gently cradled Charlotte Webster in her hands and allowed the spider to crawl up her arm.<\/p>\n

She even watched as her Cardinal Flix partner, Brian Long, allowed Charlotte to crawl on his arm.<\/p>\n

And she listened with appreciation as spider handler Bill Pambianco, who manages Pet Zone for his mom, owner Michele Pambianco, explained that Charlotte Webster, a Mexican Red-Knee Tarantula, is not aggressive and not particularly venomous.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also fragile. Although she has an exoskeleton, like a lobster, a fall from the pet store counter could kill her, Bill Pambianco said.<\/p>\n

Schwab agreed with the Pet Zone visitors and staff who called Charlotte Webster \u201cbeautiful\u201d and \u201cdelicate.\u201d<\/p>\n

She listened attentively to Pambianco\u2019s basic lesson in spider anatomy: the back of her body is where her spinnerets are; the front of her body is where you can see her eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer eyes are so small,\u201d Schwab said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they can see almost 360 degrees,\u201d Pambianco said.<\/p>\n

If a spider touches you, Pambianco said, \u201cit feels almost like a hairy toothpick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can feel every contact point,\u201d Long said, meaning he felt all eight legs as Charlotte Webster crawled on his hand.<\/p>\n

If a spider loses a leg, another will grow to replace it, said Pambianco, who explained Charlotte Webster is about 3 years old and eats a diet of crickets, cockroaches and other insects.<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t spin the kind of aerial web that makes a perfect Halloween decoration, he said. Her web is more like a carpet that lies right on the ground.<\/p>\n

In the movie, Schwab said the main character is a violinist who admires spiders as fellow artists, thanks to their web-weaving, and wants to use them to take revenge against people who have hurt her.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Webster is one of several spiders from Pet Zone who will be part of the cast, along with a black widow and a European house spider, which will stand in for a more venomous brown recluse spider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make sure the crew knows,\u201d Schwab said. \u201cWe will treat them with the utmost respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Friday afternoon, she wasn\u2019t quite ready to touch Charlotte Webster. But she said she\u2019s feeling braver all the time.<\/p>\n

People interested in being considered to be extras in the movie can register through the movie\u2019s social media pages on Facebook and Instagram, Long said. \u201cArachnophilia\u201d is the first of four movies that Cardinal Flix expects to film in Northeastern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

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