Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
What could have been a one joke, in-jokey, spoof
of 50's B-movies turns out to be a humorous and fun,
spirited romp. David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer star in
this film. That wasn't a good sign. Although I like
Arquette, he isn't exactly lead material. And Wuhrer
hasn't been in a good film ever. (Has she?) Surprisingly,
the acting here is top-notch and on target. Everything
is light and breezy and just fun. It works.
Like Harry Knowles, I am an Internet film critic
whore now. I get lotsa free passes to stuff and lotsa
press kits. The press kit for "Eight Legged Freaks"
has a quote from producer Dean Devlin. He says, speaking
about himself and co-producer Roland Emmerich, "We were
wondering if there was a way to recreate (a 50's sci-fi
film) with more sophisticated visual effects and state-of-the-art
production values, to bring it into the modern era but
not lose the charm and humor that made those films distinctive
in the first place." In my opinion, they've succeeded
admirably in this. Emmerich and Devlin met director
and writer Ellory Elkayem in Telluride when his short
"Larger than Life," an homage to 50's atomic spider
films, was shown. They hired him to help write and direct
their feature homage.
The nods to 50's films are there but they never
seem heavy-handed or clunky. The mutant spiders here
(and they're huge) come about in the typical 50's-atomic-scare
way, a barrel of some chemical waste is accidentally
dumped in a local waterway. A weird science guy, who
has an exotic spider collection, feeds his pets some
bugs, captured near the water, and, voila, giant spiders.
Another funny "genre" joke comes when a young boy
(Scott Terra - who surely came in second after Daniel
Radcliffe for the role of Harry Potter) is the first
to notice the giant creatures. "No one ever listens
to the kid," he scowls. But Arquette does listen and
soon enlists the aid of the boy's mom, Wuhrer, who also
happens to be the local sheriff. Of course, she also
happens to be Arquette's character's old love interest.
There's some easy to comprehend plot involving
abandoned mineshafts and corrupt politicians which,
of course, is all tied up in the end of the film. But
plot isn't all that important here. Giant spiders are.
The special effects here are just real enough to be
fun and just phony enough to keep it from getting too
gruesome or troubling. There's no blood here and no
real verisimilitude in the violence. Rather, the idea
is to make things cool and creepy without grossing us
out or getting caught up in overly realistic special
effects.
"Eight Legged Freaks" is one of the most mindlessly
entertaining films to hit the megaplex in the summer
of 2002.
Notes:
Also with Doug E. Doug, Scarlett Johansson, Rick
Overton, and Eileen Ryan.
Terra will be playing "Daredevil" at age 12 in
the upcoming feature based on the comic. Ben Affleck,
of course, plays him as an adult.
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Card
Script:
A-
Acting: A+
Cinematography\Lighting: B+
Special Effects\Make Up: A
Music: C
Final
Grade: A-
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