a film review by Steve Anthony
What's more fun than
a barrel of monkeys?
A mall full of giant spiders of course!
If you're looking for a fun Halloween movie this year, don't overlook 2002's "Eight Legged Freaks." You might remember the trailers when this movie was first released. As trailers go, what you see is what you get - a small secluded town invaded by giant jumping spiders. The action starts in the first few minutes of the film and doesn't let up until the end.
Unless spiders truly give you the creepy crawlies, this film will amuse (think "Gremlins" with eight legs) more than scare you, although some scenes of very realistic and humongous spiders snatching people away to be entombed in silk and have the juices sucked out of them later do provide a horrific ‘what if?’ nightmarish vision.
The filmmakers had a great time parodying giant bug movies of the 50's here and the movie even makes fun of itself in a few scenes. Watch for the little subtle horror homage jokes: a citizen with a chainsaw and hockey mask, a Looney Tunes®-ish fight between a cat and a giant spider inside a wall that leaves their prints in sheetrock on the other side, and even a quick attempt at often used sexual innuendo humor via a male store mannequin falling face first into the lap of a female mannequin. This happens so quickly however, that the kids and probably even some adults won't pick up on it. Don't worry about having to explain anything other than sometimes mannequins fall over onto each other amid the ruckus of creature features. [And sometimes their blow-up-auto-pilot cousins smoke on airplanes.]
Crawl, no JUMP online or to your nearest DVD rental store if you still have one in your town, pull up a web and enjoy! This is quirky entertainment that'll help take the edge off those slasher films you're watching on Halloween - at least until the door bell rings and a kid in a giant spider costume is standing on the other side.
If you're looking for a fun Halloween movie this year, don't overlook 2002's "Eight Legged Freaks." You might remember the trailers when this movie was first released. As trailers go, what you see is what you get - a small secluded town invaded by giant jumping spiders. The action starts in the first few minutes of the film and doesn't let up until the end.
Unless spiders truly give you the creepy crawlies, this film will amuse (think "Gremlins" with eight legs) more than scare you, although some scenes of very realistic and humongous spiders snatching people away to be entombed in silk and have the juices sucked out of them later do provide a horrific ‘what if?’ nightmarish vision.
The filmmakers had a great time parodying giant bug movies of the 50's here and the movie even makes fun of itself in a few scenes. Watch for the little subtle horror homage jokes: a citizen with a chainsaw and hockey mask, a Looney Tunes®-ish fight between a cat and a giant spider inside a wall that leaves their prints in sheetrock on the other side, and even a quick attempt at often used sexual innuendo humor via a male store mannequin falling face first into the lap of a female mannequin. This happens so quickly however, that the kids and probably even some adults won't pick up on it. Don't worry about having to explain anything other than sometimes mannequins fall over onto each other amid the ruckus of creature features. [And sometimes their blow-up-auto-pilot cousins smoke on airplanes.]
Crawl, no JUMP online or to your nearest DVD rental store if you still have one in your town, pull up a web and enjoy! This is quirky entertainment that'll help take the edge off those slasher films you're watching on Halloween - at least until the door bell rings and a kid in a giant spider costume is standing on the other side.
