Things we love about Illinois: Insect Fear Film Festival

One of our favorite things about our favorite institution of higher education.

(Image courtesy of Tanya Josek)
One of our favorite things about our favorite institution of higher education.

Mary Timmins

Insect Fear Film Festival

When an entomologist and a film critic marry—in this instance, UI entomologist May Berenbaum and Richard Leskosky—the result is a celluloid celebration of flying, crawling, stinging and jumping horrors that each February draws throngs to Foellinger Auditorium. When not attending screenings on the order of Mansquito, Centipede Horror and Wasp Woman, attendees can get up close and personal with the “stars,” including tobacco hornworms, cockroaches and tarantulas (not insects, but popular, nonetheless). Since the festival’s 1984 launch, enterprises ranging from National Public Radio to the New York Times have caught the bug. Nationalgeographic.com heralded the event as “just like Cannes, only with spiders and scorpions instead of Jennifer Lawrence and Brad Pitt.”

Did we miss one? For more in this series, search “Things we love about Illinois.”

Nostalgia