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Eight Legged Freaks
Warner Bros.


6.1

based on 32 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 20 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sci-fi violence, brief sexuality and language

Starring David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johansson, Doug E. Doug, Leon Rippy, and Rick Overton

The residents of a rural mining town discover that an unfortunate chemical spill has caused hundreds of little spiders to mutate into the size of SUVs. And they're hungry. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	Jesse Alexander Ellory Elkayem (also story) Randy Kornfield (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Ellory Elkayem
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 29, 2002 Video: October 29, 2002 Theatrical: July 17, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	98 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Reader Ted Shen

A cunning and hilarious update of the giant-insect movies of the 1950s.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

This is postmodern folk art, a tricky transaction in which the work isn't just a story, it's a genre survey, a homage, a meditation, a parody and, oh yeah, while it's at it, still a pretty good story.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The cheesier it got, the more I liked it.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Eight Legged Freaks is a B-movie-and-proud-of-it thrill ride, probably the best of its kind since "Tremors." It does just what a good creature feature is supposed to do: It entertains with laughs, gasps, gooey spectacle and a bemused sense of fun.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Has laughs, thrills, wit and scary monsters, and is one of those goofy movies like "Critters" that kids itself and gets away with it.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The movie's combination of unabashedly fun carnage, cool special effects, and tongue-in-cheek dialogue keeps the ball rolling (albeit at reduced speed), until the last of the titular terrors has bit the dust.

Boston Globe Reilly Capps

Doesn't try to be anything it's not. It's happy being a funny, shoot-'em-up, run-for-your-life, green-guts monster movie. And as green-guts monster movies go, it's a beaut.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

Has a smart mix of things going for it, including a self-effacing sense of humor.

Los Angeles Times Gene Seymour

So why does Eight Legged Freaks make one laugh out loud even though there is nothing revolutionary about its approach to the giant bug genre? -- the movie is so unapologetic in its crassness that it disarms even the fussiest connoisseur of throwaway disaster flicks.

New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf

This thing's all in fun. It's just a perfect movie for people who like to shout at the screen, so have at it.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

It's the filmmakers' post-camp comprehension of what made old-time B movies good-bad that makes Eight Legged Freaks a perfectly entertaining summer diversion.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Starts like a house afire and then suffers an imagination burnout.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

If you go to Eight Legged Freaks expecting anything but a campy, cheesy romp, then you have wandered into the wrong theater. This movie is for those who like smart (often self-referential) humor and cheap thrills.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Even at its most enjoyable, Eight Legged Freaks is disappointing -- it grazes your funny bone instead of tickling it like crazy.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Indeed, for all its jokiness, this isn't the film for anyone who suffers from even the mildest fear of ugly, scuttling, jumping creatures with spindly, furry legs that have a habit of hiding in your shoes.

TV Guide Staff (Not credited)

Silly, good-natured and thoroughly unpretentious, this giant-spider movie has nothing more on its mind than providing the kind of brainless thrills once delivered by movies like Tarantula (1955), Earth vs. the Spider (1958) and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975).

Variety Dennis Harvey

This update of 1950s drive-in sci-fiers finds the right balance between icky, funny and scary, with sheer energy compensating for a script that could have used more parodic panache.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The people behind Eight Legged Freaks were absolutely correct not to make it too loopy or too dark. But they ought to have made it too something. Real fun is never this tame.

USA Today Mike Clark

Isn't tough to take as long as you've paid a matinee price.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Winds up a lot closer to the movies it's taking off from than it cares to admit: cheap, unimaginative and predictable. It's the horror movie equivalent of one of those "Saturday Night Live" sketches that drags on interminably, though nobody in it seems to have any idea of just what the joke is.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

An occasionally charming mix of campy fun and dodgy computer-generated effects.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

So if you're in the mood for a scary flick, the kind where people can't resist going into the huge hole in the wall where the family Pekinese just disappeared to the sounds of being masticated, this is the one.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Neither particularly funny nor especially scary. But it's so cheerfully silly, you may just have fun with it anyway.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

I can't say I was scared, but I wasn't bored. By way of full disclosure, Warner Bros. provided free popcorn at the screening. I gobbled up every greasy morsel.

Film Threat Eric Campos

This movie stunk so much you’d think that there were barking spiders in the theater.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Like many of the worst pop-referential parodies of the post-''Scream'' era, this one stalls on laughs once the big joke has been established.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Awkward, obvious and sporadically -- very sporadically -- amusing.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The few isolated funny moments, particularly a witty visual gag involving a pop-up tent with legs, provide only a short break from the screen-flooding onslaught of CGI creatures and screaming extras.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The actual movie is the cinematic equivalent of cheap Chinese egg rolls: all flour and cabbage shreds, maybe half a nibble of pork.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Amid numerous identical skirmishes with leapfrogging arachnids, trace elements of black comedy and intentional camp are discernible but utterly extraneous.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Limps along, spinning not a silken web but an extremely derivative, tattered one not likely to snare anybody's interest.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Action freaks may enjoy the chasing and chomping, but there's no hint of human interest or moviemaking imagination.

The average user rating for this movie is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Steven B. gave it a0:
Wow!! I can honestly say, this is one of the worst movies ever made. Actually, it's like watching something other than a movie, like a bunch of bad acting, cheesy dialogue and laughably crap special effects, and like this kind of slapstick childish unfunny type of humour, all exploded onto your screen!!!! It's a bit like something you'd see on Disney Channel, like in the same league as Lizzie McGuire.

Becca L. gave it an8:
Not a big fan of horror movies (or spiders), but I liked this movie alot. It was very fun and lighthearted, even when people were being eaten by giant spiders. This movie isn't meant to be taken seriously, you'll come off as a giant loser if you do.

Murph C. gave it an 8:
Film critics who score this film badly really have no joy in them!! The prefer films that are either disgusting or totally boring - and then say how "arty" it is. As for all the rest of us that aren't pretentious losers, take this film for what it is-a fun, undeniably stupid and exciting comedy.

Andrew M. gave it a 4:
I understand this is supposed to be a campy, 50's-style horror flick, but I still didn't like it. David Arquette is good (but out of place), Wuhrer is commendable and solid, Johansson is mostly just worried about how good she looks (which is very good!), and the spiders just look goofy and ridiculous. This just wasn't my type of film so I won't bag it unnecessarily, but I will say that (IMO) it wasn't funny, it wasn't scary, it wasn't even that campy... it wasn't really anything.

Saer A. gave it a 7:
Great mix of horror and comedy.

René H. gave it a 8:
Much better than you think!

The Gilbert Mulroneycakes Hour gave it an 8:
Rejoice! Rejoice and be thankful! Movies still have a sense of fun! Ha ha! But please, I implore you, do not be taking it seriously-like. Or it'll look rubbish. Watch it in the spirit it was intended and you'll think it's fab.

Eight Legged Freaks Warner Bros.

Eight Legged Freaks
Warner Bros.