Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

The residents of a mining town discover that a chemical spill has caused hundreds of spiders to mutate overnight to the size of SUVs. It's then up to mining engineer Chris McCormack and Sheriff Sam Parker to gather a group of townspeople, including the Sheriff's son, Mike, her daughter, Ashley, and radio announcer Harlan, into battle against the eight- legged behemoths.With all the good intentions of the film trying to homage creature features from the fifties, Eight Legged Freaks forgets to do the important thing when homaging a genre, to make it a fun.I wanted something in the vein of Gremlins, something that was dark, as well as funny, but it's not dark at all, in fact, watching it 14 years after it's release, it's about at the standard of an Asylum production.To make a film like this, you really have to go over the top with the narrative, because after the initial Spider rampage starts, you need some characters who are eccentric, and have some strange character traits.The cast are okay, but they have nothing about them. Arquette just does Dewey, but with a higher intellect, Doug E Doug plays the most interesting character, but again, they could have really made the paranoid DJ just that little more crazier.In a world where Sharknado and Lavantula exist, this bigger budget product looks quite lame compared to those two franchises, because it's just a little to serious for it's own good.Only worth seeing if you have a strange desire to see Scarlett Johannssen get covered in a spider web....

Despite the really bizarre and misplaced attempt at humor that director Ellory Elkayem opted for "Eight Legged Freaks", then this 2002 movie is still worth watching if you enjoy a monstrous creature feature.The story, in all its simplicity, is about a small town that become the hunting grounds for huge, aggressive spiders.While this movie doesn't instill any academy award winning moments, then people still managed to do good jobs with their given roles and characters. Most memorable was Doug E. Doug as the eccentric Harlan Griffith.The spiders in "Eight Legged Freaks" were actually quite nicely animated and did look like real arachnids. Well, aside from the sounds they made at times, which were epic fails at bringing comedy into the movie. It was a shame, because this actually dragged the movie down into a mediocre experience.Yes, there are far better spider movies available, but I do think that if you enjoy such movies then "Eight Legged Freaks" is still worth sitting down to watch, just tune out the ridiculous sounds that were added to the spiders in many scenes.

Eight Legged Freaks wants to be old fashioned B movie with broad acting, some comedy and scares, gooey effects and hopefully remind you of the early 1990s horror comedy Tremors.A barrel of toxic waste leaks into a lake in Arizona which causes spiders to grow at an alarming rate who get hungry and set about attacking the local town. Just be grateful that the toxic waste did not give rise to Zombeavers.The female local sheriff (Kari Wuhrer) and Chris McCormack (David Arquette) a bad boy who has returned home after some years lead the town's fight back. Arquette does well as the goofy hero like the type he played in the Scream films, just about likable enough and gets a romance subplot with the sheriff. Scarlett Johansson plays the sheriff's headstrong teenage daughter. Doug E Doug plays the local conspiracy nut. The wealthy town mayor is the bad guy.The finale at the mall goes on for too long as the entire town throws everything at the giant spiders. The film is fun and goofy enough, not really scary but also not memorable. A fast food snack that you will forget about the next day. Maybe because it cynically was a corporate attempt to be a monster B movie and lacked heart.

Toxic waste lands in the reservoir of Prosperity, Arizona. An exotic spider farmer collects crickets for his spiders, and his spiders grow to enormous size. The townspeople are overrun by the giant spiders, and rallies around mining engineer Chris McCormack (David Arquette), funny paranoid Harlan (Doug E. Doug), sheriff Sam Parker (Kari Wuhrer), her kids Mike (Scott Terra) and Ashley (Scarlett Johansson).This is a great example of well made creature feature B-movie. The characters are likable and fun. The action is ridiculous and campy. The story is well structure, but it's the actors that we love to root for. It's a movie where there isn't a higher calling than to have a little gleeful fun battling giant spiders.