[Kalimac]

Personally I don't care about spiders one way or the other (I can take care of my sister's pet tarantulas without problem, for instance) but Shelob almost had me under the theatre seat. I see what you mean, Diamond - it was the fact that she was so *agile* that made her so scary - and of course spiders are agile, but the way she was described in the book always made me think of a lumbering hulk that can't turn around very fast, despite Tolkien assuring us of her hunting abilities. <P>As for being too impersonal - well, I don't see how you could get the personalization that you get in the book unless you want to introduce a voiceover at that point, because what we know of her is entirely through Tolkien's exposition. She doesn't talk, and there's no way on earth Frodo would have an inkling of "Hey, this is the last child of Ungoliant!" The fact that she was going to sting Frodo and suck him dry made her frightening enough for me.