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This homage to the B-movies of the '50s has a promising first half, but runs out of ideas in the second. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
The residents of a rural mining town discover that an unfortunate chemical spill has caused hundreds of little spiders to mutate overnight to the size of SUVs. It's up to mining engineer Chris McCormack (David Arquette) and Sheriff Sam Parker (Kari Wuhrer) to mobilize an eclectic group of townspeople into battle against the bloodthirsty eight-legged beasts.
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Rating: PG-13 (Language|Brief Sexuality|Sci-Fi Violence)
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Genre: Mystery & thriller, Comedy, Sci-fi
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Original Language: English
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Director: Ellory Elkayem
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Producer: Dean Devlin, Bruce Berman
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Writer: Ellory Elkayem, Ellory Elkayem, Jesse Alexander, Randy Kornfield
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Release Date (Theaters): wide
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Box Office (Gross USA): $17.3M
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
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Production Co: Electric Entertainment, Village Roadshow Prod., Centropolis Entertainment, NPV Entertainment
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Sound Mix: Dolby SR, DTS, Dolby Stereo, Surround, SDDS, Dolby A, Dolby Digital
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Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)
Cast & Crew
News & Interviews for Eight Legged Freaks
Critic Reviews for Eight Legged Freaks
Audience Reviews for Eight Legged Freaks
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I was one of the few that caught this on cinema release and it was a mess of high concept 50s nostalgia and simple drama. The film attempts too much in its short running time and sadly it's not the bundle of fun promised. They rush through the characters and this is a very simple guy returns to his small town scenario. When you consider the people behind this film it's all the more disappointing. Eight Legged Freaks had all the ingredients to make a cult gem but it misses with all the jokes and high concept. Did we need all the bike stunts in the desert? The filmmakers played this to the low teenage market and they failed on that front. 08/05/2020
brendan n Super Reviewer -
So, once again, for a couple of days (until Monday, theoretically), I am writing these reviews on the Notepad because I exhausted all of my mobile hotspot options. The appointment to fix the WiFi was moved to Monday for reasons that I do not wish to get into. Nothing bad, I just don't wish to get into them or else I'll get pissed off. Funny thing, I started watching this movie yesterday on an alternate hotspot, the hotspot ran out of data slightly less than halfway through the movie. I found another mobile hotspot that I had forgotten about, a free (and cheaply made) smartphone. It actually allowed me to finish the movie no problem. I even got the quality up to 720p, which I was not able to do with any of the other hotspots. Or at least be able to do it on a consistent basis like I did with the free phone. I finish the movie, I play Spider-Man on the PS4 (a fucking great game, though I'm near the end and some of the city activities are starting to annoy me) and it just gives up and dies. Leave the memories alone, don't change a thing and I'll hold you here in my memory. All jokes aside, shall we move on to this movie? Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this movie. Much like a lot of movies from this era, I remember seeing parts of it, but never all at once in one sitting. I remember, back in the day, that used to be a running inside joke for Clerks for me. I always caught bits and pieces of it and never the full thing from beginning to end. Though, to be fair, with Clerks, you can watch bits and pieces of it without any real context, since that film is kind of a bunch of skits thrown together. Not saying that it wasn't great, of course, but Clerks doesn't really have any sort of narrative structure and that's part of its charm. Regardless, I don't know, I never felt like I had to watch this movie. And I imagined, having seen Big Ass Spider! (a really fun movie) some years ago, that I didn't really NEED to watch this, since it probably wouldn't compare to the aforementioned flick. And this movie didn't seem to have the best reputation. As much as one tries to avoid it, sometimes you're influenced by a film's reception in subconscious ways. That's why, I'm glad to say, that this movie really was quite the pleasant surprise. I'm not gonna say it's quite on Big Ass Spider's level, but I legitimately had fun watching this movie. More than anyone could have reasonably expect. Of course, this isn't the second coming of Apocalypse Now. This was never meant to be a masterpiece or to, really, be taken all that seriously. Sometimes I think people take films TOO seriously and they expect unreasonable things. Not saying that the more mixed reaction is people taking the film too seriously, but you can't deny that there had to, at least, be SOME of that. This clearly wears its 50s sci-fi films on its sleeves and it pays tribute to those because it understands, at its core, what made those movies great B-level entertainment and it tries to replicate that in a, at the time, more modern setting with more modern again, at the time, special effects. And the fact of the matter is that, if you really think about it, the special effects and CG not having aged all that well actually ends up helping this movie. It adds to the camp factor that this film tries to specialize in. In all seriousness though, I just think the movie's pacing is probably one of its best parts, at least in my opinion. It flies by and, in my case, it left me wanting more. A sequel, which was being talked about in 2003, is unlikely now given the fact that, if you were to use the same characters, Scarlett Johansson is a major star and she wasn't at the time of this film's release. She'll probably command a lot of money and, honestly, I don't think the movie made enough money to justify a sequel, even if it's probably done better on DVD. Neither here nor there, I suppose. The movie isn't as funny as Big Ass Spider but, really, it doesn't need to be. I think that the casting of the movie is really solid and they're all game for the silliness this film displays. I think people overlook that point, the cast needs to be in on the joke and they need to treat it like it's deadly serious or else it doesn't work. If anyone acts like they're above the whoe thing, then the movie just falls apart. I think, in this case, the case definitely is in on it and they deliver the goods. I don't know, the film's whole atmosphere screams fun. It's not the type of fun that everyone is gonna get into, quite clearly, but I enjoyed myself tremendously. I don't know if I'd say it's a truly good movie, like I felt that Big Ass Spider was, but it gets the whole three stars in my opinion. The movie delivers on what it promised and that was a good time while paying homage to the films that inspired it. I think this delivered on that regard, so in my opinion, I can't really give it less than three stars. Then again, there's plenty of movies that have delivered on what they promise and I still dislike them. The obvious difference here is, of course, that I actually enjoyed this movie. I do not know if I would give this a recommendation, since it's not gonna be everyone's cup of coffee. I mean, I would recommend it if you know what you're walking into. This is a B-movie through and through. It knows what it is and it doesn't pretend to be anything more than that. It also helps to turn your brain off. Fun movie and one that I, honestly, regret passing on for as long as I did.
jesse o Super Reviewer -
Basically exactly what you would expect from a movie about massive spiders
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Eight Legged Freaks is an atrociously bad creature feature that tries to homage the classic low-budget sci-fi films of the '50s. When a group of spiders are exposed to toxic waste they grow to gigantic proportions and attack a small town in the middle of the desert. David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Doug E. Doug, and Scarlett Johansson star, but the characters are little more than one-dimensional stereotypes. The special effects aren't that bad, but most of it's poorly staged. Unfortunately, Eight Legged Freaks fails completely, both as a B-movie and as a satire of a B-movie.
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