Here we have an homage to the old giant monster movie from the 50s & 60s
with updated special effects.  Since I am a fan of the genre, I wanted to
see this film.  And since I'm not a fan of David Arquette's, I decided not
to see it in the theaters.  But on DVD, sure, why not?   Anyway, here's the
story:  A truck transporting toxic waste swerves to miss a little bunny
rabbit, and ends up losing one barrel.  The barrel falls off the truck and
lands in a pond.  Joshua, the local freak, runs a spider farm nearby, and he
gathers crickets from that pond.  Well, the toxic critters caused quite a
stir in Joshua's arachnids.  They started growing, and growing, and growing,
eventually overtaking their keeper and attacking a sleepy town in Arizona.
Who can save the town?  Why the prodigal son, of course.

This film has plenty of cliches - the characters (the smart kid who no one
listens to, the single mom looking for lost love, the dimwitted policeman,
the crooked politician, the feeble old guy, the oppressed black man, etc),
the plot (listed above), and the action (the creatures first attack pets,
then people; the spiders discussed in the beginning of the film display the
talked-about abilities later on;  the spiders inhabit the old abandoned
mines, which happen to contain methane - hmmm.).  It may be unoriginal, but
it know it.  The jokes are sometimes funny, the acting is corny, but not
horrible.  The special effects aren't top notch, which adds to the cheese
factor.  But the best feature of this intentional B-movie - they deliver the
monsters.  Usually you have to wait around till the end of a monster film to
catch a glimpse of the creature (and even then it's disappointing).  But not
in Eight Legged Freaks.  We get to see tons of spiders (literally), and we
see them in action.  All throughout the movie.  There's plenty of carnage -
Spiders attacking people, people attacking spiders, web-spinning,
explosions, guns, green goo - it's great.  So, for fans of the monster
movie, check out Eight Legged Freaks - just don't expect a masterpiece.
 
 

Quality: 4.0  Visuals: 6.0  Intensity: 4.0  Laughability: 5.5 
OVERALL RATING: 4.9