Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Director: Ellory Elkayem

Starring: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra

Venomous spiders get exposed to a noxious chemical that causes them to grow to monumental proportions.

Ironic, for someone not fond of spiders I sure do enjoy watching spider movies…

From the poster and DVD art – and even the film’s title – I expected this to be a silly B-Movie. It still baffles me what actually made me decide to watch this, but I’m glad I did. This was a pleasant surprise. Ok, so the visuals are not the greatest, but they most certainly are not bad. This horror comedy was actually quite funny, and horrific at the same time.

Let’s face it, ‘Eight Legged Freaks’ is not to be taken seriously, as the title indicates. But I never expected it to be this much fun! The humor is appropriate, funny and thankfully never overbearing. Don’t be fooled by this being a horror comedy; there are some truly creepy and spine tingling scenes.

They cleverly utilize different spider species for maximum effect, and it works very well. Warning: I don’t recommend this if you have Arachnophobia. The finale is total mayhem – and its wonderful!! I mean there are spiders everywhere! The spider sound effects are hilarious – sounding very much like the Gremlins. The final act is pure comedy, but it really is a lot of fun. This is one hell of an entertaining movie! I loved it!

‘Eight Legged Freaks’ was nominated for Best Horror Film. At the box office, it earned nearly $46 million on a $30 million budget.

Would I watch it again? Hell, yeah!