8 Legged Freaks

Release Year : 2002

AKA : Arac Attack

Directed By : Ellory Elkayem

Written By : Ellory Elkayem, Randy Kornfield

Starring : David Arquette, Kari Wurther, Scarlett Johannson

Related Links : IMDB, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com

 

OMG!!! CGI spiders! /me hides under couch. Or would do if a/I'm not scared of spiders, and b/CGI spiders scare me even less. Still, I like a good bug movie, and if there's a cute lady with something that wiggles, and wriggles, and tickles inside 'er then all the better.

What's at the root of the problem here? Toxic waste. Ye got it, that old glow in the dark green stuff left over from scientific jiggery pokery that spills, gets into our hairy arachnids, and causes rather vigorous growth. And the excellent Tom Noonan albeit briefly. He's one tall dude who looks like something got into his food and caused vigorous growth as well. His little spidery collecting habit, along with toxic waste, is going to get the ball rolling for ample arachnid antics.

Feck taking this seriously. It's a parody, it's plays upon all those cheesy cliches of sci-fi / creature features on every angle. Dialog is delightfully corny, the characters pun many horror sterotypes you'll have come across in countless films. Many scenes, cheesy as they are, are deliciously OTT complete with comical music. I like spiders, but I don't like cats, so I was cracking up when the cat got its comeuppance. Pets get a really raw deal all round in this really, perhaps the people would be better off keeping goldfish.

The movie takes a little while to get down to spidery shenanigans proper, but once it does we have a hectic hullaballo of hopping, jumping, hungry spiders leaping everywhere and doing their best to make dinner of anything on 2 or 4 legs. As a rule I don't like CGI, but here it works, suits the parody element to the max. Computer generated spiders leaping around are enjoyable, the musical score contributing greatly to the fun.

It's over the top, which it is supposed to be, it's really enjoyable, and there's plenty of comical touches along the way. No way is it going to sicken you, but then it isn't meant to. It may creep you out big time if spiders set your nerves on edge, but else it is going to be 100 minutes of fine looking, web spinning fun.