Eight Legged Freaks (2002) Review

Do you hate spiders? Do you really hate spiders? Well they don't like you either.

Eight Legged Freaks is very PG-13. It's very silly, very family. All the spiders are CGI and either giggle and scream like Gremlin's when they're being cute or they roar like lion's when they're attacking. And the hero is a kid who knows everything about spiders, but whom all the adults, including the bumbling cop, dismiss. Very silly, very family.

Eight Legged Freaks is essentially a modern Arachnophobia, just made for kids and therefore not nearly as suspenseful, shocking or phobic. It's also part of a long history of spider horror movies including everything from Kingdom Of The Spiders from '77 to Arachnoquake from '12. Most of these movies are campy and intentionally ridiculous, and Eight Legged Freaks is no different, but it is far more whimsical and playful than any other spider horror movie I've seen.

Both David Arquette (essentially playing the same role as Officer Dewey in Scream) and Scarlett Johansson carry the movie, with Doug E Doug  (not to be confused with Doug E Fresh) as the resident conspiracy theorist taking the honorable mention. Cinematography and sound design were both solid, but I expect they burned at least half their $30 million budget on goofy CGI:

Worth Watching?