Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Truly Dreadful Film

Really Surprised!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

This is a fun horror movie for the cliche filled genre. The film opens with a spoof of "AM Coast to Coast." The town of Prosperity is broke. The local mayor and emu entrepreneur (Leon Rippy) has allowed the abandoned mines under his town to be used as a toxic waste dump. When one of the proverbial poorly packaged drums of waste spills, this results in huge spiders who attack the local community in leaps and bounds.David Arquette and love interest Kari Wuhrer lead the attack against the spiders. This is a young Scarlett Johansson film as she plays the teen daughter. It reminded me of Jennifer Aniston in "Leprechaun" or Sandra Bullock in a Roger Corman film. They all start at the bottom. Scott Terra plays a young Harry Potter looking kid that no one believes.The spider special effects was fairly decent. My one criticism is that spiders of different species do not band together and hunt in packs. They would eat each other. Humor, action, and cartoonish horror. The spider noises and sound track go counter to a true horror film.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Some PG-13 words and minor sex talk/situations.

A runaway barrel of toxic waste lands in a rural body of water, contaminating the local crickets that are used as food for the residents of a nearby spider farm. Naturally, the 200 or so exotic arachnids grow to mammoth proportions and attack the terrified townspeople en masse. A former resident, Chris McCormick (David Arquette, the "Scream" series), has returned home, just in time to help Sheriff Samantha Parker (Kari Wuhrer, "Anaconda"), the romantic idol of his life, and various other citizens combat the eight legged monsters."Eight Legged Freaks" turned out about as good as one could hope for, given that it's treading rather familiar ground. But it does do its job, which is both spoofing and paying homage to its influences, namely 1950s "giant creepy-crawly" cinema such as "Tarantula" and "Them!" (The latter is briefly shown playing on TV.) While it's not in the same league as "Tremors", it still serves up an agreeable dose of PG-13 rated horror along with comedy. Also offering up echoes of "Gremlins" and "Aliens", it makes its fearsome CGI beasts pretty funny themselves by giving them cartoonish vocalizations (supplied by the legendary voice-over artist Frank Welker). Yes, the beasts are digitally rendered most of the time, but some of the animation is pretty decent.Co-writer and debuting director Ellory Elkayem gives his movie great pace and great energy, and keeps things interesting by offing quite a few of the more expendable characters. Pets are also fair game.The typically amusing Arquette dials down his particular brand of goofy eccentricity a bit in order to play a more conventional sort of hero, and he does an alright job. Wuhrer kicks lots of spider ass, and looks damn fine doing it; she has to be one of the sexiest ever small town sheriffs seen in film. Scott Terra ("Daredevil") is Wuhrers' egghead son, the character whom we know will grasp the situation early on, and Scarlett Johansson ("Don Jon") is her somewhat sassy teenage daughter. Doug E. Doug ("Cool Runnings") has his moments as a paranoid local radio DJ. Comedian Rick Overton ("Groundhog Day") is a hoot as Wuhrers' fumbling, Barney Fyfe-style deputy, Eileen Ryan ("Feast") is endearing as Arquette's aunt, and the great character actor Leon Rippy ('Deadwood') is effectively slimy as the crooked mayor / entrepreneur. Tom Noonan ("Manhunter") appears unbilled as the spider farm owner / operator."Eight Legged Freaks" will be too overly silly and juvenile for some tastes, but it's quite endearing overall, and impossible to dislike.Seven out of 10.

As the title suggests, if you don't get the satire of this movie you simply don't get movies. It's not trying to be Hamlet or Die Hard, it's stupid and it admits it's stupid. The premise is silly (spiders will never be the size of houses e.g.) but it's an enjoyable romp. Plenty of hidden jokes - Grant Wood - American Gothic et al; and yes a predictable outcome. It's not a "Fuck You" movie as Reginald D. Hunter would describe. It's humorous. It's not great but if you wanna waste a couple of hours attached from reality this your movie.

As the name would indicate, "Eight Legged Freaks" shouldn't be taken too seriously. It's a horror comedy about a variety of arachnids growing huge due to -- what else? -- accidentally spilled toxic waste. They terrorize the citizens of Prosperity, Arizona, where Kari Wuhrer plays the Sheriff, Scarlett Johansson her teen daughter, and David Arquette the Sheriff's love interest.The plot of terrorizing arachnids in an Arizona town automatically brings to mind 1977's "Kingdom of the Spiders" with William Shatner, but that movie took the topic serious and the tarantulas were normal size.The Arizona locations are great and the movie is consistently amusing as "Eight Legged Freaks" is just a fun flick, but the main highlight is the mother/daughter combo of Kari Wuhrer and Scar-Jo. Kari has a strikingly attractive face and personality and Scar-Jo was 17 years-old during filming and looks great in tight pants.On the downside the film seems too long at 99 minutes because there isn't enough depth to the characters and their story to warrant going over like 85 minutes. As such, the final act in the mall, mines, etc. seems to go on forever. Another criticism is that the spider F/X appear too cartoony (I'm sure they looked better in 2002), but this is hardly a flaw in that the movie itself is cartoony. My main beef is that Scar-Jo isn't prominent enough, but that's likely because she was only 17 and wouldn't become a "star" until her next film, 2003' excellent "Lost in Translation." On the other hand, Wuhrer is very prominent.GRADE: B-