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Eight Legged Freaks
The residents of a rural mining town discover that an unfortunate chemical spill has caused hundreds of little spiders to mutate overnight to the size of SUVs. It's then up to mining engineer Chris McCormack and Sheriff Sam Parker to mobilize an eclectic group of townspeople, including the Sheriff's young son, Mike, her daughter, Ashley, and paranoid radio announcer Harlan, into battle against the bloodthirsty eight-legged beasts.
2002 · Directed by Ellory Elkayem · 99 min · Action · Comedy · Horror · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 10 frames
Tagline
Let the squashing begin!
Plot
On a highway outside the quiet mining town of Prosperity, Arizona, a truck driver swerves to avoid a rabbit, causing a barrel of toxic waste to land in a pond. Crickets that feed from the pond are collected by an exotic spider farmer, Joshua Taft. One week later, Joshua shows Mike Parker, a local boy, his collection, including an enormous female orb-weaver spider from Brazil named Consuela. After Mike leaves, Joshua is bitten by an escaped tarantula, accidentally knocks down the spider cages, and is killed by the spiders. After devouring him, the spiders grow too large to contain, with enormous proportions due to the toxins in the crickets Joshua fed them.
Another week later, Chris McCormick, whose father owned the mines before he died ten years ago, returns to Prosperity and stands against Wade, the mayor of Prosperity, about his proposition to sell the mine, as he believes that his father had discovered a gold vein in the mine. Chris also sparks a romance with Sam Parker, the town sheriff and Mike's mother, whose ex-husband Chris assaulted for being unfaithful to her, resulting in Chris's exile.
Wade holds a meeting in the town's new mall about whether they should sell the mines and relocate, claiming Chris's father was delusional for thinking gold was in the mine. A grounded Mike sneaks out of his home and finds Joshua's farm covered in webbing. He sees an enormous spider shadow in the mines and tells Chris that the spiders have grown to enormous sizes, based on a giant spider leg he found at the mine entrance. Chris does not believe him, nor does Sam, who extends his grounding.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Ellory Elkayem, Jesse Alexander
- Cinematography: John S. Bartley
- Edited by: David Siegel
- Music: John Ottman
- Production design: Charles William Breen
- Produced by: Dean Devlin, Bruce Berman
Cast
- David Arquette as Chris McCormick
- Kari Wührer as Samantha Parker
- Doug E. Doug as Harlan Griffith
- Scarlett Johansson as Ashley Parker
- Rick Overton as Pete Willis
- Matt Czuchry as Bret
- Riley Smith as Randy
- Leon Rippy as Wade
- Randi Klein as Waitress #1
- Terey Summers as Waitress #2
Production
- Country: Australia, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Centropolis Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures, NPV Entertainment, Electric Entertainment
- Budget: $30,000,000
- Box office: $45,900,000
- Themes: spider, creature, pick up, wetting pants, hockey mask, barbershop, perfume, aunt nephew relationship, straight razor, forklift
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