Ah, the good old days of giant bug movies in the 1950s. I truly love those old flicks like Them!, The Deadly Mantis, Tarantula, and Beginning Of The End. These were Saturday afternoon fare on local TV station horror shows when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, and I devoured them. When Eight Legged Freaks came out in 2002, I knew this was going to be one of those movies I would re-watch over and over. Starring Kari Wuhrer and David Arquette, this flick lived up to all my expectations.
Eight Legged Freaks is a loving, and often hilarious (the cat in the walls! LOL), tribute to the big bug movies of yesteryear. It pulls out all the stops and hits every giant insect trope you can think of. Is it set in a small desert town? Check. Is there a toxic chemical spill that causes mutations? Check. (Of course, that latter is interchanged with the radioactivity from atomic testing that was seemingly the cause of all the mutated creepy crawlies of the 50s. It WAS the Cold War, after all, when "duck & cover" was on every schoolkids' lips.) Is there a precocious kid who knows the truth but can't get the adults to believe him? Check. Is there a sleazy politician who wants to make a ton of money who wants to cover up the town's problem with colossal spiders? Check. Is there a local crazy predicting the end of the world? Check. Of course there is also the budding romance between the town's sheriff and a local who has just returned to town. In this instance, the gender roles are reversed. Oh, this film definitely tries to get everything crammed into it that made those 50s movies so popular. In fact, there are dozens of references to those old flicks, and other pop culture Easter Eggs. See if you can spot them.
The plot is simple and doesn't require any overthinking. A small accident involving toxic waste in a pond leads to contaminated crickets being fed to a variety of arachnids at a local spider farm. The spiders mutate after eating the crickets, escape from the farm, and start overrunning the town. The townspeople all band together to fight off the "arac attack". "Arac Attack" was actually the original title of the film until David Arquette improvised a line about "eight legged freaks" The scene made the cut, and the title of the movie was changed, although it DID get some theatrical releases overseas under the original title. I think we can all agree "Eight Legged Freaks" is a much more fun, kitschy, and evocative title.
The aforementioned Wuhrer and Arquette are Sheriff Samantha Parker and prodigal son Chris McCormick, whose father owned a local mining company. But, there are plenty of other faces you will recognize as well, including Tom Noonan, Rick Overton, Doug E. Doug, Leon Rippy, and a teenaged Scarlett Johansson filling out the cast. Sheriff Parker's young geeky son Mike is played by Scott Terra, whom some may recognize as young Matt Murdock in the 2003 version of Daredevil, and Johansson is her rebellious daughter Ashley. I have to say, the cast is awesome. Never do they make you feel like they know they are in a ludicrous film about mass attacks by giant spiders. They play it mostly straight, and it makes the movie work.
Now, before I go any further, I have to admit that I have had a HUGE crush on Kari Wuhrer since her days on the TV series Swamp Thing, so that could have colored my judgement of this movie. However; I honestly do not think so There is just too much about this movie that makes it a carnival ride of action and laughs. It is over the top, but not in a The Last Sharknado:It's About Time way.
One of the reasons I think Eight Legged Freaks plays so well is that it doesn't stick to just one type of spider, or spider attack. Because the spiders come from a spider farm, there are multiple species of spiders involved in the attacks, and this leads to a huge variety of ways for the spiders to kill. We see everything from enormous tarantulas, orb weavers, trapdoor spiders, black widows, and jumping spiders. Two of my favorite scenes are when the jumping spiders attack a group of teens riding motocross bikes and the attack by the trapdoor spiders. The final showdown between the town and the arachnids is magnificent.
Eight Legged Freaks was in pre-production for 7 months to allow the effects department to do justice to the spiders, and they accomplished that. Fully 1/3rd of the $30 million budget was spent on the effects. They obviously used every penny of that money. Sadly, the film only grossed $45 million, which makes it somewhat of a flop. Once you figure in marketing and distributing cost, a film needs to gross at least twice its budget these days to be a success. But, the film has fairly solid midrange critical reviews, and is another movie that has gained something of a cult following since it went to home video. Currently, you can find it on Netflix if you have never seen it. Another thing I have to admit to is being arachnophobic, and even I love this movie. Once again, I say grab your popcorn and settle in for a night of mutant spiders overrunning a small town. It is like being back in the 50s, but in color!
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