Cover Art

Credits

Director: Ellory Elkayem Starring: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Doug E. Doug, Scarlett Johansson Screenplay: Jesse Alexander and Ellory Elkayem Music: John Ottman Tagline:'Do you hate spiders? Do you really hate spiders? Well they don't like you either' Country: USA AKA: Arac Attack

OK, take a deep breath - here's the plot. Local-boy Chris (David Arquette) rolls back into town to reclaim the family gold mines and hopefully snag a lost sweetheart, Samantha (Kari Wuhrer), into the bargain. Unfortunately, Prosperity, Arizona isn't doing too good; the mall is closing down and the Mayor decides that toxic waste disposal is a good little money spinner that might help revive the town's (and his own), fortunes, (I guess he's out of a job at the next elections then). As any B-movie fan will tell you, toxic waste leads to bad things, and sure enough, a stray barrel of the green goop ends up in the local lake or, more precisely, the local lake that has an exotic spider farm on it's shores. Whoops. Pretty soon the spiders have outgrown their cages and proceed to tear up the town and it's inhabitants with predictably messy results. Luckily, a few of the town's residents, including Chris and town sheriff Samantha, aren't going to take this lying down and decide to take the scrap to the beasts, arming themselves with shotguns, chainsaws, crossbows and err, perfume (yep, you read that right.) The townsfolk also have a secret weapon in the shape of a nerdy, bug-mad kid who knows all kinds of spider related stuff. (Any of this sound familiar?)

Right, so that's the plot, or what of it there is, out of the way - I hope you managed to get all that. So what's good and bad about this flick? Well, not much on either count to be honest. On the plus side, the film is an entertaining 90 minutes or so that does exactly what it says on the tin - nothing more and nothing less. It certainly never commits the unforgivable sin of being boring and, aside form a slightly slow first 15 minutes, it cracks along at a fair old pace. From a visual point of view the film looks terrific, helped out by some excellent cinematography and a truck-load of decent, if a little fake-looking at times, visual effects, (no pipe-cleaner spiders here, I'm sorry to say.) Elkayem mentions on the disc's commentary track that during the latter stages of the shoot they began to run out of time and money and, therefore, ended up simply 'winging it' - chucking the storyboards in the bin and just having fun with a genre they all seem to have a fondness for. It seems that all concerned had a good time making this movie and it does show in the finished product. On the down side, many viewers will, without a doubt, be irritated by the films complete lack of original ideas. Scream managed to tread similar ground but do so in a clever, genre-fan-friendly way and also add a couple of twists and a hint of originality while doing so. Unfortunately, Eight Legged Freaks has nothing to offer here, although I somehow doubt that was the intention anyway. So many ideas and scenes are stolen from so many movies that it becomes tiring after a while - Dawn Of The Dead, Aliens, Gremlins, Friday The 13th - all of these get a mention and that's nowhere near all of the films that the makers have begged, borrowed or stolen from - I'm sure you'll all spot many more, (answers on an e-postcard to the addy below.) As for the characters, well, don't even bother; the cast members scream, run away from nasty monsters and crack one-liners as and when required, but that's about it.

The short that got Elkayem the gig in the first place, Larger Than Life, is next up. A black and white feature, funded by the New Zealand Film Commission, about a housewife being terrorised by a giant spider lurking in her house. It's interesting to watch this short and spot the many shots which made it into the main movie. Good fun, a decent quality print and well worth a look.

A few deleted scenes are next, although the promise of 'spine tingling additional scenes of spiders in action' found on the cover is a bit wide of the mark. Consisting of footage which was obviously, and wisely, cut to keep the running time down, there isn't anything here which would add much to the movie, although the original ending is included.