Classic Horrors Club

The first movie to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) was Vertigo (1958.) Granted, it was used only in the opening credits, but I had no idea it went back that far. This is especially since the first movie I remember watching DVD bonus features to learn about CGI was The Mummy (1999.) I know, that’s skipping other 1980s and 1990’s movies that were increasingly using it. After watching Eight Legged Freaks (2002), it just hit me that CGI has become ubiquitous and we probably could never have had a movie like it without CGI.

We hear a lot about “dodgy” CGI in early films that used it. However, it looked pretty darned spectacular to me in Eight Legged Freaks. Of course, the giant spiders jump so fast that you can’t tell that they’re animated (except for the fact that you can’t imagine creating the same effect without animation.) It all looked real… as real as giant spiders can look. Then again, I was watching them a lot through the fingers of my hands covering my eyes. I mean… giant spiders? Yuck!

I enjoyed Eight Legged Freaks so much that I refuse to call it a horror-comedy… you know, that would mean I enjoyed a horror-comedy. Action-comedy is more like it. You say, “potato,” I say, “tomato.” Whatever it is, I succumbed to organic laughter several times during all the squirms. I especially liked the references to other movies, such as:

• Them! (1954) plays on television in the background.
• Chris McCormick (David Arquette) channels Kevin McCarthy, shouting, “They’re here! They’re here!” (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956)
• When asked what just attacked them, Deputy Pete Willis (Rick Overton) says, “A spider, man.”

This was a second-time viewing for me, having first seen it when released in theaters in 2002. 22 years later, the story is more solid than I remembered, slowly revealing characters and their relationships so we develop an actual caring for them. In many ways, it reminds me of Gremlins (1984), especially with some of John Ottman’s score, but also with the overall concept of a small town being invaded by agents of chaos.

I liked the characters and the actors portraying them. McCormick’s history with Sheriff Samantha Parker (Kari Wuhrer) is both funny and tender. The sheriff’s daughter, Ashley, is played by a young Scarlett Johansson, and her boyfriend Bret by a young Matt Czuchry. I must have been in a good mood, because I even liked Harlan Griffith (Doug E. Doug), the manic radio station DJ who never met a conspiracy theory he didn’t believe.

In fact, my only issue is that it starts out so fast and never slows its pace, meaning all the action becomes a little tedious. You know what could have helped that? New Zealand director Ellory Elkayem, who wrote the screenplay with Jesse Alexander, could have cut 10 minutes to bring it in at a perfect 89-minutes. He showed a lot of promise, though, and I’m surprised to see that his theatrical motion picture career ended with only six films.