Eight Legged Freaks

Reviewed by:
Paul Ulane

When toxic waste and exotic spiders mix, all hell breaks loose and a town becomes hysterical. So begins special-effects extravaganza Eight Legged Freaks. Plot falls away entirely as giant killer spiders plow through helpless humans in this carnage-fest.

David Arquette plays a mining engineer back in town to mourn his father’s death, while Kari Wuhrer is the hottie town sheriff and old flame. They eventually band together to battle the mutant spiders, but, unfortunately for us, the filmmakers cram into the mix a completely unnecessary love story, which takes away from what could be a cheeseball horror-flick classic. The movie is most entertaining when it makes fun of itself (there’s a great Jason reference woven into the final scenes), which, unfortunately, isn’t often enough. In addition, a lackluster screenplay leaves the actors hanging, and the film’s PG-13 rating inhibits the gore factor. Seeing giant spiders rampage through a city is cool, seeing David Arquette get dewey-eyed (over anything) is not.