Highlights
- Eight Legged Freaks is a horror comedy about a small town that is attacked by giant mutant spiders due to exposure to toxic waste.
- The movie, while not a box office hit and not well-received by critics, has a charming and fun quality that is appreciated by some fans.
- The film stars David Arquette and features an early performance from Scarlett Johansson, who later became a major Hollywood star.
Scarlett Johansson has had an eclectic film career, appearing in dramas like Marriage Story and Lost in Translation, as well as sci-fi hits like Under The Skin and Her. Her most famous role, or at least the one known to most people, is as Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, before she took on the spider-related mantle, Scarlett Johansson was duking it out with giant arachnids in Eight Legged Freaks.
While there have been plenty of spider-based horror movies over the years, with Arachnophobia probably being the best in terms of quality, none of them quite scratch the B-movie itch like this little-seen 2002 horror comedy that also starred David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer. It may not have made much at the box office, and it certainly wasn’t a hit with critics, but Eight Legged Freaks has an undeniable charm and features an early turn from one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.
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What is Eight Legged Freaks about?
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Eight Legged Freaks |
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Director |
Ellory Elkayem |
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Writers |
Screenplay by Jesse Alexander & Ellory Elkayem, Story by Ellory Elkayem & Randy Kornfield |
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Cast |
David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johansson |
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Release Date |
July 17, 2002 |
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Runtime |
103 Minutes |
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Box Office |
$45 Million |
Eight Legged Freaks is a horror comedy about a small American mining town that gets attacked by spiders that become exposed to mutagenic toxic waste, which causes them to grow to a gigantic size. It all happens after a truck driver carrying loads of chemicals dodges a rabbit on the road, resulting in a barrel of toxic waste landing in a pond, and crickets feed on it which are then collected by Josh, an exotic spider farmer.
Josh feeds these infected crickets to his collection of spiders, and is later bitten by a tarantula that has escaped, and he knocks over a big spider cage, and the terrifying spiders are unleashed and eat Josh alive. The spiders begin to grow to a very large size, due to the toxins in the crickets he fed them. These spiders then head towards the quiet town of Prosperity, where the proprietor of a mine, Chris McCormick, must save the town from the killer spider attack.
What is Eight Legged Freak’s Rotten Tomatoes score?
Eight Legged Freaks has a 47% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 144 reviews, and the critics’ consensus is that it “has a promising first half, but runs out of ideas in the second.” While it’s not certified fresh, the score isn’t bad for a movie that isn’t that well known, and certainly not as well known as Arachnophobia. David Arquette was a reasonably big star at the time, coming off the success of the Scream movies, and this was his next big vehicle after the original trilogy came to an end. But its failure to light up the box office contributed to his career taking a bit of a nosedive, before he returned to the role of Dewey Riley in Scream 5 in 2022.
Eight Legged Freaks has a 33% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes from over 100,000 ratings, which is a decent return, with a lot of fans saying it was a really fun movie. There were rumors of a sequel being developed despite the disappointment of its cinema release, but these types of movies used to do well when released on DVD back in the day.
How does Eight Legged Freaks end?
A broadcast is made over the radio to warn people of the giant spiders, while a lot of people are eaten by them, a character called Sam implores everyone to evacuate to the mall and barricade themselves in. Chris tries to call the army in to help, in the middle of being attacked by the spiders.
Chris then goes to look for Gladys down the mines and finds her, along with the gold his father always claimed he discovered. They are then faced with a giant Consuela spider, and they use perfume to distract the spider for long enough, allowing them to escape on a motorbike. Chris then proceeds to blow up the mines, which also blows up the mall along with the Consuela and her army of fellow spiders. The police arrive, and the survivors gather, and there’s a radio report by the local host, Harlan. He informs his listeners that the town has covered up the whole incident. However, they have let him continue his broadcasts, and he says Chris reopened the mine. He announces that another story was coming, as he revealed a big smile, which revealed a number of golden teeth in his mouth.
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