EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS

US, 2002, 100 minutes, Colour.
David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlet Johansen, Rick Overton, Tom Noonan.
Directed by Ellory Elkayam.

The story is that this huge-spider-movie was going to be called Arac Attack but was changed because it sounded too much like President Bush's military agenda. Be that as it may, the arachnids attack with a vengeance. And they are huge, menacing and destructive. Of course, the reason they mutate (like any good environmental thriller will point out) is they have drunk water contaminated because of a poison spill when a truck crashes off the highway.

Obviously, its audience is only those fond of this kind of mutant-monster horror show. Since I am partial to them
(Arachnophobia was a really enjoyable show), I would add that it is all done in a tongue in cheek way, with plenty of references to similar films, impossible situations with victims cocooned or devoured, with an Arizona supermarket under siege. David Arquette is making his mark in this kind of B-grade entertainment. He is the abandoned mine owner. The sheriff is tough-talking Kari Wuhrer, assisted by some comic cops. The director, Ellory Elkayem, a New Zealander made a short film on the subject and a feature, They Nest. Shudders and laughs.

1. Spiders and their capacity for appealing to audiences, terrifying them? The science fiction tradition of terrifying insects? Insects larger than life? Mutations? Horror aspects? The film's use of comedy and parody?

2. The title and its tone? The original title being Arac Attack - and sensitivities towards George Bush and Iraq in 2002?

3. The setting of the small Arizona town, the desert countryside, the mines, the homes, the spider centre - a touch of realism for the heightened horror?

4. The impact of the special effects for the spiders, enlarged, pursuing people, destroying town? The people and their confrontation of the spiders, the fights, the people being cocooned? The importance of the noise factor?

5. The environmental themes, the truck going into the water and spilling the waste, the contamination, the poisoning of the spiders and the mutations?

6. Mike, his visit to the spider centre, the water, the spiders dying, their being released by the owner? The warnings and the information given about spiders in the initial conversations? The webs? Mike and his discovery of the disaster?

7. The background of the mine, the past prosperity, Chris and his being ten years away, his family, the return, the possibility of opening the mine again, redeeming himself, his relationship with Sam in the past, able to renew it?
8. The characters, especially the police, the comic deputy, the mayor - comic turns, victims of the spiders?

9. Sam as a concerned mother, her relationship with her children, her concern about Mike, her daughter and her wanting to go out, with the young men in the truck, her mother asserting her authority as mother, as sheriff? Coping yet the difficulties? Chris coming back into her life?

10. The spiders on the rampage, the havoc that they caused, the kids, the tanker, the town, Chris's aunt?

11. The town of Prosperity, people taking refuge in the mall, the spiders pursuing everybody down the streets, going to the bank, the vaults, into the shopping centre, onto the roof? The varieties of menace, attack and deaths?

12. The mine, the discovery of the female, her cocooning the victims, Chris and Sam going into the mine, able to destroy the female and thus rid the town of the plague of spiders? The gas, the gold discovery, prosperity again, Sam and Chris and a family?

13. The appeal of this kind of film, horror, laughter, environmental messages?