Arin Thompson
Daily Egyptian
Director: Ellory Elkayem
Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Staring: David Arquette, Doug E. Doug
It's apparent that a B-horror movie is quality when the audience knows the ending within 20 minutes of the projector flickering, and "Eight Legged Freaks" is a modern success.
If the audience is hungry for that cheesy, cheap scare, then this is the movie to see.
Set in a great B-movie town, Prosperity, Ariz., with a resident psycho who turns out to be not such a bad guy, "Eight Legged Freaks" touches on all the right nerves.
The movie begins at Taft's Exotic Spider Farm, but by the end of the movie, the spiders are much more exotic - not to mention friggin' huge and weird - than in the beginning.
"Eight Legged Freaks" is sort of a bizarre combination of "Gremlins" and "It." The spiders are computer generated and look really life-like, that is if there was such a thing as a 50-foot spider. The humor (which is sometimes sexual in nature) is evenly spliced with surprises that make the audience jump.
And like all good B-movies, there is an underlying love story, a scantily clad teenager wearing nothing more than a towel and harmless pets getting the ax. "Eight Legged Freaks" made sure to cover all the stereotypical bases. There was one odd aspect of the film though. It seemed like it may have been a prerequisite to have bad teeth to be cast in this movie.
Leon Rippy ("The Color Purple," "The Patriot") plays Wade, a money-hungry business man who has a mouth full of ugly choppers, and Doug E. Doug ("Cool Runnings") plays Harlan, and he too has an odd set of teeth.
David Arquette ("See Spot Run," "3,000 Miles to Graceland") plays Chris McCormack, a man who comes back to his hometown just to be bombarded by past memories and met with adversity. None of the acting really stood out in this film, however, as the giant poisonous spiders were the real stars. Arquette was funny as usual because of his quirky facial expressions.
The movie has a sort of action aspect because of the high-speed dirt bike chases through the desert. This is sort of a new twist seen in horror movies. It's almost like an extreme motocross race as could be seen on ESPN 2, and it's really cool, especially when the riders are being chased by monstrous spiders.
For a movie that is placed in the sci-fi, horror, comedy arena, "Eight Legged Freaks" brings home the bacon and calls for a renewed respect for B-horror films. But a word to the wise: if you didn't like "Arachnaphobia," you probably shouldn't see this one. The spiders do look real. Really.
Arin Thompson can be reached at athompson@dailyegyptian.com.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
