ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich did it again.

First they made "Independence Day" in the best tradition of the 1950 invasion movies.

Then they made "Godzilla" in the best tradition of the monster in the city movies like "King Kong" and "Beast from 20,000 Fathoms".

And with "Eight Legged Freaks" they tried (but didn't entirely succeed) to honor the Big Bug movies like "Tarantua" and "Them!". They even set the story in a small desert town, ala director Jack Arnold.

The movie didn't exactly soar like an eagle at the box office, but it didn't crash and burn either. The problem is that even though the movie isn't really bad, it isn't really good. The characters just don't have the razzle dazzle that Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith did in "ID4". Nor did the movie have funny characters like Matthew Broderick and his crowd in "Godzilla".

Admittedly it tried hard to give us the funny characters, but they just didn't quite work.

And the FX that sucked our eyes right out of their sockets in those two earlier movies just weren't there in "Eight Legged Freaks". Leaping spiders chasing dirt bikers don't compete well with a huge hovering motherships and thirty-story monsters.

But I have to tip my hat to this talented team of filmmakers for keeping the old traditions alive. According to Wikipedia, Devlin and Emmerich's next project is a sequel to "Independence Day", with the strong possibility that a third film will be shot back-to-back with the second.

I'm looking forward to it!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich had parted ways before this movie, it was directed by Ellory Elkayem. Mr. Elkayem was chosen for the job after doing a short comedy film about a house infested with giant spiders.

The biggest notice the movie got was about the lack of a hyphen between 'eight' and 'legged' in the title.

I thought it was a pretty good movie, although I was surprised that the villain of the movie survived the film.

The highlight of the film to me was Rick Overton, as the Deputy. Also the running joke about Oswald's rifle. Rick Overton is a SF fan, and a SF modeler. He did an article for a SF modeling magazine that Starlog did back in the 80s, on scratch-building SF models from found items like toys.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

Interesting stuff, David. Thanks.

[Bud Brewster]

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The trailer does a pretty good job of pitching this one to the public. I wish it had been better. Oh well . . .
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_____ Eight Legged Freaks (2002) Official Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I watched this movie again today and was surprised by the fact that one of the things which marred it was the way they tried to make it more lighthearted with a myriad of "funny" sound effects by the spiders!

The movie is filled with frequent squishy sounds for various spider impacts, numerous "Gremlin" sounds when the spiders do mischievous things, very unspider-like "funny animal sounds" when the spiders are startled or hurt!

It was like watching a cartoon!

Add to this a constant stream of bad jokes, dumb site gags, and generally lame attempts at humor. And all this is happening amidst a barrage of disturbing scenes showing spiders leaping onto dozens of people and killing them!

In a true horror movie, all that gore would be appropriate, but mixed in with the over-saturation of humor, the movie was just unpleasant to watch, because it was neither scary nor funny!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Krel]

I have to wonder if the movie was originally intended to be serious, and they decided to make it a comedy after they started production. Or was it a comedy, that they decided to add serious elements after they started production. The director's short film was humorous, so it might be what they intended from the beginning.

I still find it odd that the villain of the movie wasn't killed, or even suffer any serious consequences for his actions.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

[Krel]

The Mayor, Harlan Griffith. He is the one that was being paid to let the toxic waste to be stored in the mines.

David.

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ The title did not come from the script, the director or the studio. In one scene, actor David Arquette improvised the phrase "Eight Legged Freaks" and that became the title. The original title was "Arac Attack" (in many European countries the film was released under that title). The scene can be seen in the movie with the phrase intact.

Note from me: Ah weil, "Arac Attack" isn't a very good title anyway. However, "Eight Legged Freaks" is only a little lbit better.

~ Inspired by the short film Larger Than Life (1997) from writer Ellory Elkayem.

Note from me: I tried to find that short film on YouTube, but it doesn't seem to be available.

~ A sequel was originally announced by producer Dean Devlin back in 2003, it would have had Ellory Elkayem returning to direct and David Arquette reprising his role as Chris McCormick. Nothing more was ever said about it, and the sequel got scrapped for reasons unknown.

Note from me: You know me, guys — I can concoct a sequel for practically anything, just for the fun of it. But I'll be damned if I can think of goold iidea for this one. The movie had a slim plot, and it ended with no "'unfinished business" so to speak.

~ Whenever a major spider attack happens, the theme playing is a play on the song "Incy Wincy Spider".

Note from me: I'm not sure this is true, but what I'm AM sure of that correct title of the song is the "ITSY BITSY Spider".
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)