Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
The residents of a rural mining town discover that an unfortunate chemical spill has caused hundreds of little spiders to mutate overnight to the size of SUVs. It's then up to mining engineer Chris McCormack and Sheriff Sam Parker to mobilize an eclectic group of townspeople, including the Sheriff's young son, Mike, her daughter, Ashley, and paranoid radio announcer Harlan, into battle against the bloodthirsty eight-legged beasts.
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Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Fresh and Exciting
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
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.
Venomous spiders get exposed to a noxious chemical that causes them to grow to monumental proportions.What separates this film from some of the lowest-budget science fiction films out there is the cast. The effects are not really any better than the films shown on SyFy, but the talent in the cast brings this up a notch from crud to minor cult classic. The inclusion of Scarlett Johansson right before she got big helps, too.Having David Arquette as the leading man is an interesting choice. Arquette is fun, quirky and does a great job as comic relief. We rarely see him carry a movie. But, to be honest, he did a fairly good job here. The cover tries to play up his goofiness, but he is actually very much the "straight guy" here.
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.
So as a kid I use to watch this movie ALL the time, ever since the first time i saw this movie iv loved it ever since. The cast i thought was done well, the acting wasn't bad but then again this movie is about giant spiders so you shouldn't take this movie so seriously to begin with. The spiders looked pretty cool and they ranged from all different kinds of spiders from jumping spiders to trapdoor spiders even to a giant tarantula. The action scenes were amazing, my favorite being the dirt bike/spider chase scene. You can obviously tell that the directors had a fun time making this movie and I can certainly see why. i give 8/10 stars