Movie Review by Nigel A. Messenger
Starring: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johannson, Doug E Doug
Director: Ellory Elkayem
Dangerous spiders, illegal toxic waste dumping, an accidental dangerous chemical spill – mix it all together add a few standard characters and you get giant jumping spiders, overrunning and killing off the local townsfolk.
Does all of this sound ridiculous, well it is, but it’s intentionally over-the-top. It’s funny without being an outright comedy. There’s a bright kid Mike (Scott Terra) who knows all about spiders, rebellious older sister Ashley (Scarlett Johannson) who’s a hottie and dating the local jock Bret (Matt Czuchry), who’s a nice guy but hangs with the wrong crowd and whose father Wade (Leon Rippy) is the local rich property developer who’s dumping toxic waste in the local mines which have hidden gold. If that’s not enough there’s the prodigal son Chris McCormick (David Arquette) whose father is the dead mine owner and who has returned home to find the gold and save the town and who’s secretly in love with the local sheriff Sam Parker (Kari Wuhrer), who’s a single parent and mother of Ashley and Mike.
If you don’t mind looking at spiders, at least on screen, and you’re up for a bit of silly fun EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS could give you an entertaining evening. In a way it’s got the same feel as MARS ATTACKS! except I didn’t really think much of that movie where as I quite liked EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS, probably because it doesn’t try hard to be funny and ends up with a better movie. You might really hate it but give it a chance and you could be looking around for spiders with a smile on your face for a while. As the tagline for the movie says… Let the squashing begin!
