Film Reviews

Eight Legged Freaks

• Rating:
• Director: Ellory Elkayem.
• Starring: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Doug E. Doug, Scarlett Johansson, Rick Overton, Eileen Ryan.
• Details: US / 99 mins / (12PG).

A comedy/horror and a thinly disguised tribute to the B movies of the 1950s, Eight-Legged Freaks follows what happens to some two-hundred deadly spiders when they get exposed to chemical waste. What's the problem, you'd be forgiven for thinking. Well, since this is the movies, the spiders don't die - they grow to gargantuan sizes and run amok on the streets of a small Arizona town. It's then up to the townsfolk, spearheaded by Chris (Arquette) and feisty local police chief, Sam (Wuhrer), to fight off the marauding creatures. Make no mistake about it; Eight-Legged Freaks is not a film to be taken seriously. The plot is patently ridiculous, the acting's hardly memorable, and the effects are occasionally sluggish. What it does have going for it, however, is a remarkable lack of pretension and zero self importance. The director doesn't seem to care that he hasn't got much in the way of a script here, but his ability to keep the action moving at such an efficient pace, and the general good humour of all involved makes Eight-Legged Freaks a guilty pleasure. Of sorts, anyway.

Review by Garreth Murphy