theatrical
trailer
Choice
Scene: Jumping spiders taking down a pack of dirtbikers.
This sort of thing just doesn't happen enough in real life.
Tech
Specs: Wide Screen (1.85:1), English and French Dolby
Digital 2.0, English, French and Spanish subtitles
Sometimes
a movie achieves greatness through superior camera work,
excellent writing, and subtly nuanced performances from
fine actors. And sometimes a movie just kicks ass because
it promises giant spiders, admits that giant spiders are
both a little hokey and a lot icky, and then wallows in
the stupidity of its premise. Being giant spiders, of course.
This
is why when 2002 comes to a close, and other critics will
be pushing rather snooty and high-minded Top Ten lists,
Fanboy Planet may stand alone in having both its main film
critics agree that Eight Legged Freaks belongs near
the top. Like a regular-sized spider, the movie quietly
crawled into theaters this past summer, then quickly skittered
away before anybody could really turn the light on. Hmm.
Maybe that's more like a cockroach. You can judge for yourself
and read the
original review here.
At
any rate, just before a slightly more popular spider movie
debuted on DVD, Warner Home Video released Eight Legged
Freaks to an unsuspecting video audience. Through its
general unpretentiousness, it makes for an extremely satisfying
experience.
This
DVD has revived my interest in audio commentary. Having
fallen victim to too much inappropriate reverence for mediocre
filmmaking, I listened to the track with dread. But the
genial co-stars David Arquette and Rick Overton seem just
so darned grateful to have had fun on the movie that it's
infectious. Teamed with crappy movie king Dean Devlin and
New Zealand director Ellory Elkayem, their commentary remains
low-key and never out of proportion to what they've achieved.
Best
of all, these guys realize that when they have nothing to
say, they shouldn't speak. For a change, most of their commentary
is pretty incisive, and on a couple of occasions offering
great tips for do-it-yourself effects. Next Halloween, my
house will be well webbed.
As
can often be expected, the deleted scenes offer little to
add depth to the movie. A couple of them provide details
that you probably hadn't thought you needed. The alternate
ending has the seed of an interesting visual idea, but that's
about it. Elkayem and company chose wisely with the way
they ended up going.
Every
time you see the name Elkayem you may be asking "who?" Warner
has thoughtfully included his resume, in this case a short
black and white film called Larger Than Life, which
obviously inspired Eight Legged Freaks. The short
proves that this guy has a firm handle on his visuals, knows
how to build suspense without having to show too much, and
has a great sense of humor. Even after watching the main
feature, this short provides a few jumps and laughs. In
fact, the only thing that would have made the full-length
film cooler would have been if they could have done it in
black and white, just like the old fifties movies that everybody
involved clearly loves.
In
case you don't know what those are, the disc includes a
brief history of giant insect movies (not just spiders),
with stills from those films. It's almost too brief, though,
and might have benefited from film clips, or just more pictures.
But
that's quibbling. If you missed this in the theaters, do
yourself a favor and pick it up. And if you were one of
the lucky, tasteful few who saw it on the big screen, you
already know what you have to do.
Eight Legged Freaks (Widescreen Edition)
