Eight Legged Freaks (2002) | 31 Days of Horror: Oct 22

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The itsy-bitsy spider ain’t so itsy-bitsy anymore.

Eight Legged Freaks is a fun and not-too-serious look at an invasion of giant spiders into a small southwestern town. It has plenty of star power for viewers to gawk at while the visual effects create a believable invasion of arachnids that makes your hair stand on end.

Before Viewing

The intertitles of this trailer ask if you hate spiders, before telling audiences that “they don’t like you either.” Large spiders, varying from the size of a large cantaloupe to the size of a large car, attack citizens in a small town. Some get webbed up, some are attacked while riding motocross, and others are chased through the streets. There’s not much else to know about these Eight Legged Freaks.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

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After Viewing

Outside the town of Prosperity, Arizona, a truck carrying barrels of toxic waste swerves to avoid a rabbit in the road, and one of the barrels flies out into a nearby lake. One week later, young Mike Parker (Scott Terra) is visiting with his friend Joshua (Tom Noonan), the local owner of an exotic spider farm, who shows him the amazing increase in size of several of his arachnids. After Mike leaves, the spiders escape and web up Joshua, dragging him away. Another week later, Samantha Parker (Kari Wuhrer), the local sheriff and Mike’s mom, along with her deputy Pete (Rick Overton) find the barrel in the lake, while Mike discovers that Joshua is missing and the spiders appear to have retreated into the nearby mine shaft.

The town Mayor, Wade (Leon Rippy), holds a meeting at the Prosperity Mall to discuss a buyout of the mine by chemical company Viranol–along with all of the residential property above it–with the citizens. Chris McCormick (David Arquette), the owner of the mine since his father passed away, returns to town after being gone for several years and claims that there is a vein of gold still left in the mine–the Agua Mesa lode. While remodeling at home, a large spider eats Pete’s cat. Chris reopens the mine to look for the gold, which is in a section with a high concentration of methane gas.

Ashley Parker (Scarlett Johansson) is on a date with Bret (Matt Czuchry), Wade’s stepson. He gets handsy with her and she tases him with a stun gun her mother gave her, leaving Bret in the middle of the desert. Bret finds some friends riding motorcycles but they are soon attacked by spiders the size of cows. Bret manages to grab a bike and takes off into a mineshaft, avoiding getting killed. Giant hopping spiders take out a fuel truck on the highway which crashes and explodes taking out the town’s phone line. Chris finds the molt of a giant spider’s leg and takes it to Mike for a consult–choosing to believe his stories about giant spiders in the town.

A spider climbs into the Parker house, webbing up Ashley and Chris, but Sam manages to shoot it with a shotgun. Sam calls Pete to grab all the weapons from the station and come to her place. Chris and the Parkers jump in the patrol car and head to Harlan’s (Doug E. Doug) radio station–an airstream trailer on the edge of town. Sam broadcasts a message to the citizens that giant spiders are invading the town but is not taken seriously due to Harlan’s normal programming containing wild and far-fetched conspiracy theories. Sam urges everyone to meet at the town Mall.

The mostly abandoned Mall provides the perfect location to lock themselves inside, with its concrete construction and metal doors. Mike explains about the spiders, and how the people need to remain mostly quiet. Mike and Harlan head to the roof to call 911 on a cell phone (the only place with clear enough reception), while Pete gets separated from everyone else when the spiders manage to break inside. Everyone heads into the mines where Chris rejoins them. Wade, who fled before everyone else, is dragged away by a spider and webbed up–but not killed.

Chris gets the idea that they can blow up the mine by causing a spark in the methane chamber. He stays behind to rescue his Aunt Gladys (Eileen Ryan), who was dragged away and webbed up for later. Before she leaves, Chris (sorta) tells Sam how he feels about her, but she already knows. On the way out of the mine on a dirt bike–salvaged from Bret–Chris sees the golden vein of ore. Outside, Sam is unable to start the generator due to a lack of gasoline. Ashley provides her mom with the stun gun, and using the electrical zap of that device manages to get enough juice into the power line to set off a spark causing the mine to explode. Chris, with Gladys, bursts out of the explosion on the dirt bike. The explosion destroys the Mall above the mine and also kills all the spiders. Emergency services show up and are led to the survivors courtesy of Pete and Harlan who have survived.

“Operator, you don’t understand…it’s an invasion! They’re here already! They’re here!” – Chris

The next giant creature movie in a week of oversized horror is the classic Eight Legged Freaks. It is probably the best-known film by Kiwi director Ellory Elkayem and is based in part on his  1997 short film called Larger Than Life. One of the more surprising facts that I learned on this viewing was that it was produced by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Together, these two are responsible for producing and directing many modern science-fiction and disaster films such as Stargate, Universal Soldier, Independence Day, and The Day After Tomorrow. Even with their background in those types of films, Eight Legged Freaks doesn’t come off as a Devlin/Emmerich film. It has an entirely different vibe inspired by the horror and sci-fi films of the 50s and 60s.

Even though Eight Legged Freaks is a film about spiders, it has an adventurous and not-too-serious feel like the 1990 film Tremors (coming later this week). They are both isolated, western-styled stories of a town under attack by forces outside of their control. Each features a small, core group of heroes attempting to save the rest of the town from destruction similar to classic horror films like The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. I even see elements of Invaders from Mars in this film, with Mike (the child) knowing about the creatures and trying to tell the adults. They don’t believe him initially until they can get some piece of proof on their own. But once his understanding of the situation is known, his mother gives him the chance to explain what’s what to the assembled townsfolk at the Mall. Using a powerless character to impart knowledge to the audience is always a great way to build tension. Viewers know that what Mike says is true, but the adults’ disbelief at his explanations creates tension for the audience who wonder how many more people must die before Mike is believed.

The film also comes from a long line of films about spiders, gigantic and otherwise, which were inspired by the first sci-fi/horror film about giant insects: Them! Director Elkayem honors that connection by having that 1954 movie playing on Mike’s television as he tells his mother about giant spiders. She dismisses his story as television influencing his fertile imagination. But giant spiders are out there! The first connection to giant spider history is certainly Tarantula, the first movie about a giant spider. It too was set in the southwest where a single tarantula grew to house-sized proportions and threatened property and people. Earth vs the Spider was an even lower-budget film about a spider menacing a town. Kingdom of the Spiders (with William Shatner) popped up in the late 70s introducing multiple arachnid antagonists. Most recently, to the release of Eight Legged Freaks, was Arachnophobia, which did not have giant spiders, but thousands of normal-sized ones invading a town. The giant spider would even show up again in 2013s Big Ass Spider, a more comical tone in the genre. As with other animal horror films, the level of terror the audience feels is related to their relationship with the bug or creature. I think Eight Legged Freaks has a suitable heebie-jeebie factor going for it between the goop from exploding spiders spraying onlookers and having characters get webbed up while still alive. The ability to use computer-aided visual effects certainly adds to the believability of the event, rather than relying on stop-motion puppetry or blue screen effects with real spiders.

Eight Legged Freaks never takes itself too seriously, poking fun at the situations with plenty of comedic elements–mostly with Rick Overton’s and Doug E. Doug’s characters. Both men are slightly goofy and could easily have been killed, which is what’s presumed to have happened until they show up with the emergency vehicles at the end of the film. Harlan’s “man-who-cried-wolf” schtick nearly makes citizens ignore the pleas from the Sheriff. His radio show, which inexplicably everyone listens to, covers a huge range of conspiracy theories. In a post-X-Files world which now has a world wide web, these types of beliefs were growing again in the public consciousness. Theories like aliens using anal probes on humans, that America never landed on the moon, and of course anything related to the assassination of JFK. The film even has a strange call back to the JFK conspiracy when Pete grabs every gun from the station, which includes the “Lee Harvey Oswald rifle.” Harlan recognizes the gun later and calls seeing it “the weirdest day of [his] life.” These moments help separate the scary parts, allowing audiences to laugh off some of their extra energy, and maybe even wonder WTF.

The film also includes a number of tropes common to horror films and big animal attack films. The most interesting one, at least in this week of viewing these films, is the corrupt Mayor. This is the third big animal attack film in a row where the Mayor of the town is in league with the bad guys in some way. Alligator featured a leader that was in the pocket of Big Pharma, and looked the other way while the company dumped biological waste into the sewers. Empire of the Ants had the Mayor working for the ants, under their pheromone-induced control–so he was a little less culpable in his actions. Then Eight Legged Freaks has a Mayor who works with the local chemical manufacturer and allows them to store their toxic waste in the abandoned mines under the town. This is a mine that is said to be under most of the properties in Prosperity, including the Mall. Presumably, his eagerness to have Viranol buy out the citizens and the mine was to use the entire location for a toxic dump, which would put lots of money into his pockets.

Eight Legged Freaks also takes the time to explain details about the spiders to the audience (whether they are actually true or not) in order to provide details about what is happening and foreshadow all the events to come. Mike explains about the trap door spiders, which later appear under Wade’s ostrich farm. He provides details on the orb-weaver spiders which have smaller males and one giant female. The males wrap up their prey and deliver them to the female who eats them, like “breakfast in bed.” This explains why they were able to save Wade and Gladys from the cocoons. They just hadn’t been desiccated yet. Mike also explains about the spider’s sensitive smell, handing out bottles of perfume to people. This allows Chris and Sam to later escape from the female orb-weaver with a comical moment where he induces a sneezing fit by spraying the perfume directly into the spider’s face. So many other elements are foreshadowed, including the methane-heavy portion of the mine (perfect for an explosion later), Ashley carrying around a stun gun (useful in fending off horny boyfriends, and jump-starting generators), and the interconnectedness of the mines (which explains why the spiders were popping up everywhere).

Eight Legged Freaks is a really fun film that provides thrills and chills but never takes itself too seriously. It’s difficult to see David Arquette in the film and not be reminded of Officer Dewey from the Scream franchise, but he makes it a unique enough character, especially one he shaves his goatee. Seeing Scarlett Johansson in one of her early roles is also interesting. She gets to have a little action making her character more than just eye candy. Casting Kari Wuher as the sheriff provides a unique take on the authoritarian figure of the film. She gets her chance to be both mother and officer, screaming and commanding, during the spider invasion. If you have a phobia about spiders, this is the film for you. It grabs on with all eight legs and doesn’t let go until the final moments.

Assorted Musings

• The original title for the film was Arach-Attack, a phrase first spoken by Joshua to Mike and then used again by Mike. While a perfectly acceptable title, the final title–which was an ad-libbed line by David Arquette–is superior.
• Harlan, not believing that the spiders are giant versions of Earth arachnids, is told by Chris that they’re “Spiders from Mars,” possibly referring to the backup band from David Bowie’s song “Ziggy Stardust.”
• A great nod to the character of Spider-Man, when Deputy Pete is asked what’s killing the townspeople, he says plainly, “It’s a spider, man!”