Eight Legged Freaks

"Let the squashing begin!"

2002 1h 39m EN

😐

5.8

MID

🥫

49%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.5

IMDB

★5.8TMDB · 1,394🥫49%Rotten Tomatoes●53Metacritic★5.5IMDB · 62,764

ActionComedyHorrorThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The residents of a rural mining town discover that an unfortunate chemical spill has caused hundreds of little spiders to mutate overnight to the size of SUVs. It's then up to mining engineer Chris McCormack and Sheriff Sam Parker to mobilize an eclectic group of townspeople, including the Sheriff's young son, Mike, her daughter, Ashley, and paranoid radio announcer Harlan, into battle against the bloodthirsty eight-legged beasts.

“Let the squashing begin!”

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Cast

David Arquette
Chris McCormick
Kari Wührer
Samantha Parker
Doug E. Doug
Harlan Griffith
Scarlett Johansson
Ashley Parker
Rick Overton
Pete Willis
Matt Czuchry
Bret
Riley Smith
Randy
Leon Rippy
Wade

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ellory Elkayem
Writers: Ellory Elkayem, Jesse Alexander, Randy Kornfield
Languages: English
Countries: Australia, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 24 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: Australia, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Ellory Elkayem, shot by John S. Bartley. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by John Ottman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor David Siegel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

David Arquette and Kari Wührer and Doug E. Doug carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Let the squashing begin!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0271367 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ellory Elkayem directs. John S. Bartley behind the camera. John Ottman scores. David Siegel cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Profitable at the box office. Produced in Australia, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 24 years ago.
2International production across 2 countries: Australia, United States of America.
3Directed by Ellory Elkayem, shot by John S. Bartley. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by John Ottman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor David Siegel shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6David Arquette and Kari Wührer and Doug E. Doug carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Let the squashing begin!".
8IMDB entry: tt0271367 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 12 themes, including "spider", "creature", "pick up", "wetting pants".
10Released under 10 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: John S. Bartley
Original score: John Ottman
Editing: David Siegel
Production design: Charles William Breen
Costume design: Alix Friedberg
Makeup / hair: Rick Sharp
VFX supervisor: Karen E. Goulekas
Sound: Jim Fitzpatrick
Stunt coordinator: Charlie Brewer
Runtime: 99 min · 1h 39m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $30,000,000
Box office: $45,900,000
Return: 153% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
Rotten Tomatoes: 49% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 53/100
IMDB rating: 5.5/10 · 62,764 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

1 nomination total

Also by

Ellory Elkayem

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-09-16
★ 7/10
Arach Attack! Spiders escape from a spider farm in Prosperity, Arizona, and become giant man eating beasts on account of toxic waste carelessly dumped in a near by river. Can the odd ball inhabitants of this Arizona town escape with their lives? Or will spiders rule the earth and lay waste to man kind? Eight Legged Freaks is unashamedly homaging B movie creature features from the 1950s. The likes of Tarantula and Them! have their Pedipalps well and truly watered, in what is possibly the most undervalued of all the modern day creature feature homages. Having no pretensions what so ever, the only real thing not in "Freaks" favour is the usage of CGI, but even that doesn't hurt the film, if anything it adds to the obvious preposterous nature of the genre. I mean how else are we to get 20 foot jumping spiders chowing down on some annoying teenager? Perhaps "Freaks" is viewed harsh because the cast is relatively C list? Again that is a genre staple, surely? For what it's worth I think they do real fine, David Arquette has oodles of goofy charisma, Kari Wuher makes a fine female ass kicker, and the kids (one a young Scarlett Johansen) are really rather cool. Director Ellory Elkayem, who after doing They Nest in 2000 clearly has bug issues, adheres to genre staples. Kooky western town out in the desert, the inhabitants of which range from near loonies to dopey politicians, and the plot follows the traditional sense of impending doom played for laughs. Listen out for the score from John Ottman, which plays on variants of "Itsy Bitsy Spider", whilst cast a keen eye on John S. Bartley's Arizona camera work. Whilst not having the savvy scripting of homage daddy, Tremors, or the star appeal of 1990's Arachnophobia, Eight Legged Freaks deserves its place amongst such fun and creepy company. As the tag line says, "Do you hate spiders? Do you really hate spiders? Well they don't like you either". With that, I think it's web well and truly spun, don't you? 7/10

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