There is a frightening scene at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring where Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin hide by the Road as Black Riders pursue them. In taking refuge in a burrow, they escaped the sight of the Riders, but they also opened themselves up to creepy-crawly creatures that called the cranny home.

　　Dominic Monaghan, who played Merry, has now revealed that the scene was a little scarier than some might have imagined. A real spider crawled over his shoulder, the actor said in an Instagram Q&A with his followers. And it wasn't just any spider. It was a Huntsman.

　　These spiders, which live in New Zealand and many other places around the world, are known for their size and speed. The one that crawled on Monaghan's shoulder was not as massive as the nightmare-inducing one recently spotted in Australia, but it's still spooky.

　　Monaghan said on Instagram that the spider was only on him "briefly." He added that the spider was friendly. As it happens, Huntsman spiders are not known to be dangerous to humans like other spiders can be, but they are terror-inducing for their size and swiftness.

　　In the scene, Monaghan and the next closest person to him and the spider--Sean Astin--do appear shocked at the sight of the spider, even though they presumably knew what was about to happen. The scene also features worms and some kind of centipede coming out of the woodwork and the ground. It's a stomach-turning, nerve-wracking scene, and the live insects used during it do a good job at grounding the scene in reality.

　　The Lord of the Rings series has a more famous spider than this Huntsman. Shelob the spider appears in Return of the King, and she is perhaps the scariest of them all. Shelob was created digitally for Return of the King, which is great news because can you even imagine if a spider that big actually existed?

　　The Fellowship of the Ring celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The wider Lord of the Rings series remains popular, as a new illustrated edition of the novel is coming this year, while Amazon continues to film its new TV show. A Lord of the Rings video game focused on Gollum is also in the works, and we recently got a first look at the gameplay.