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A Masterpiece!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

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.

This is a fun horror movie for the cliche filled genre. The film opens with a spoof of "AM Coast to Coast." The town of Prosperity is broke. The local mayor and emu entrepreneur (Leon Rippy) has allowed the abandoned mines under his town to be used as a toxic waste dump. When one of the proverbial poorly packaged drums of waste spills, this results in huge spiders who attack the local community in leaps and bounds.David Arquette and love interest Kari Wuhrer lead the attack against the spiders. This is a young Scarlett Johansson film as she plays the teen daughter. It reminded me of Jennifer Aniston in "Leprechaun" or Sandra Bullock in a Roger Corman film. They all start at the bottom. Scott Terra plays a young Harry Potter looking kid that no one believes.The spider special effects was fairly decent. My one criticism is that spiders of different species do not band together and hunt in packs. They would eat each other. Humor, action, and cartoonish horror. The spider noises and sound track go counter to a true horror film.Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. Some PG-13 words and minor sex talk/situations.

One night on a dark, desert highway the driver of a truck carrying a few barrels of hazardous chemicals takes a turn too quickly and one of the barrels accidentally gets dumped into a pond off of the side of the road. As luck would have it this pond just happens to be near a house where an eccentric man collects all kinds of spiders. Noticing that the insects near the pond have started to grow to a pretty good size, the man gleefully begins to use them as food for his exotic pets. What he doesn't count on is these spiders getting loose and subsequently growing to a massive size. Soon the residents of a nearby town notice that their cats and dogs are disappearing with no apparent explanation for it. However, that soon changes one night when the spiders decide to start feeding on the humans as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this started off as a decent sci-fi/horror film not unlike those seen back in the 50's. Unfortunately, the focus shifted from horror and suspense to non-stop action which resulted in an all-too-typical over-reliance on special effects and other assorted gimmicks thus causing it to essentially morph into a host of similar movies produced in the last decade or so. Basically, if you've seen one action film like this then you've pretty much seen them all. And, quite frankly, there's only so much enjoyment a person can get from watching the same action-packed scenario over and over again. In short, there were a lot of big spiders killing people for almost 90 minutes followed afterward by a rather predictable ending. No doubt those who enjoy movies of this type will absolutely love this particular film. However, I got bored with it after the first 30 minutes or so and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

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)