All the Wee Eight Leggedie Beasties

Saw “Eight Legged Freaks” tonight.
Just as bad as I thought it would be, and yet, better than I was expecting. “Eight Legged Freaks” is just that kind of movie. You are expecting it to be bad — like a typical giant spider ‘B’ movie, but at the same time, it aspires to be more of a tribute to all those terrible and fun films which came before it. I see hints of slasher films, such as “Friday the 13th,” crazy sci-fi, like “Critters,” and dozens of others. We see bits of “Tremors,” “Gremlins,” “The Birds,” (I think so, anyway) and there’s even a scene reminiscent of “Terminator” with a big, exploding tanker truck.
The film stars the dreaded David Arquette, as Chris McCormack, a former small town kid, returning to claim his father’s legacy, an old mining empire. Essentially, several bad things happen in this run down town of Prosperity — things involving a spider farm, toxic waste, alien probing, and very loose movie logic.
The film itself is nothing spectacular, but has enough gags to keep it going over the long haul. The special effects are well done, and the spider sound effects and characterizations are pretty darn funny. Arquette and the rest of the cast know the kind of film they are in, and they neither overact, nor leave us with hollow, boring performances. They know enough not to take this movie too seriously.