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34
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60
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78
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55
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69
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67
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63
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86
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30
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33
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45
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96
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35
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88
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71
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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63
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73
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xx
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94
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29
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16
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75
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83
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61
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42
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70
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46
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19
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66
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59
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34
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xx
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54
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76
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79
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40
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xx
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89
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69
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64
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74
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69
World's Greatest Dad
70
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69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Eight Legged Freaks

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 20 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Sci-fi
Written by:
Jesse Alexander
Ellory Elkayem (also story)
Randy Kornfield (story)
Directed by: Ellory Elkayem
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 17, 2002
DVD: October 29, 2002
Running Time: 98 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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.)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel
Has a smart mix of things going for it, including a self-effacing sense of humor.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Starts like a house afire and then suffers an imagination burnout.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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).
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
An occasionally charming mix of campy fun and dodgy computer-generated effects.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Awkward, obvious and sporadically -- very sporadically -- amusing.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
Amid numerous identical skirmishes with leapfrogging arachnids, trace elements of black comedy and intentional camp are discernible but utterly extraneous.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Limps along, spinning not a silken web but an extremely derivative, tattered one not likely to snare anybody's interest.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Action freaks may enjoy the chasing and chomping, but there's no hint of human interest or moviemaking imagination.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
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.
