bryanjacobs-01667 Eight Legged freaks is a good film because it knows what it is and does not take itself or the subject way too seriously. Giant spiders invade, humans evade- this is the premise and the execution is deft, if not engaging. This is a classic example of a good B movie, made on a decent B movie budget where the monsters are perfect and the acting not too much further from self deprecation. David Arquette is perfect as the lead and the film also features a young scarlet johannsen. All in all this is a fantastic B movie.

Python Hyena Eight-Legged Freaks (2002): Dir: Ellory Elkayem / Cast: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scarlett Johansson, Doug E. Doug, Rick Overton: Presenting a mutating normality that isn't a great idea. The simple plot regards a barrel of toxic substance spilling into a river with a growth affect on spiders. What follows is numerous attacks on people for no other purpose than to entertain stupidity. Horrible special effects with spiders jumping out at people but it doesn't even look as if any contact is being made. Repetitious story with director Ellory Elkayem quoting from other pathetic spider trauma movies. David Arquette hardly sympathetic as he arrives back in town after ten years away. After this film he may desire to take ten years off from acting so to forget this sh*t stain film altogether. Kari Wuhrer plays a Sheriff who warns daughter Scarlett Johansson about sexually corrupt males. Perhaps she should warn her about accepting scripts as lame as this one and then apply the same medicine to herself. Doug E. Doug plays a radio personality who believes in aliens. Well, if he believes that this film is a career booster then perhaps he can believe in anything. Rick Overton plays Wuhrer's moron Deputy who has cob webs for brains. Basically a send off to superior monster movies of the 1950's but this film should be squashed with an oversized sledgehammer. Score: 3 / 10

sddavis63 I have to admit (and maybe this is sexist) that when Kari Wuhrer appeared playing the sheriff of this Arizona town it was almost enough to make me give up almost before the movie started. She just doesn't fit the bill. Too young. Too pretty. But truthfully - as the movie goes on, she works in the role. First, her performance was pretty good, and second, it's a movie that forces you to suspend your disbelief anyway, and so the fact that she doesn't work in the role actually makes her work in the role. If you see what I mean. Sheriff Parker has a big job on her hands. Her town is being invaded by giant spiders, grown into huge mutants by the dumping of toxic waste. There are tarantulas and jumping spiders and trapdoor spiders and all kinds of - well - eight legged freaks. (The name of the movie sums it up so well!) There's an interesting enough cast of co-stars for Wuhrer, including David Arquette as the owner of the local mine who's just returned to town, Scarlett Johansson as the sheriff's daughter Ashley, and Doug E. Doug as a guy running an outlaw radio station who believes in every conspiracy theory going.The story's fun, it's sometimes exciting and every now and then frightening - and it does have a few "cringe" moments as the spiders do what spiders do. Sure it's a silly movie - but I suppose that it does have barely beneath the surface a serious undertone about the environmental dangers of toxic waste. Establishing the romantic link towards the end between Arquette and Wuhrer was too predictable and too formulaic, and not at all necessary for the story. But that aside, I thought this worked pretty well.Don't take it too seriously. Just sit back and have fun with it. (7/10)

grantss Common-or-garden creature-horror movie. Only worth watching because it includes a pre-fame Scarlett Johansson.Not original - reminds me a lot of Tremors (which itself wasn't that original). Pretty much standard creature-horror plot, action and CGI.Even the CGI, which you would think would be the best feature, seems a bit crude.As mentioned, worth watching because it includes Scarlett Johansson before she was famous. Her next movie was Lost in Translation...Kari Wuhrer is also eminently watchable. David Arquette proves yet again that his siblings got the acting genes, while his talents clearly must lie elsewhere.