Spiders

The film Spiders does not intend to be mentioned in the same breath as films like Jaws and the Alien series. It has its tongue planted firmly in its cheek and as a result is hoping for the chance to rub shoulders with gems such as Piranha and Lake Placid. Whilst viewing the film you may tut and groan at some of the scenes with tacky dialogue and acting, it is only near the end when you realise that the producers have attempted to have as much fun as possible, at the expense of all those X-files/Dark Skies/Millennium style conspiracy shows, with a bit of monster movie digs in for good measure.

Unrefreshing, unintentionally funny, trite, campy, but overall a fun no-brainer of a flick, Spiders is a B-movie that doesn't try to be anything else, and, thankfully, doesn't take itself seriously at all.

When a space shuttle testing mutant spiders gets knocked back into the Earth in a freak accident, three college students discover a government project designed to use spiders as warfare weaponry.

Part X-Files, part Aliens, part Men in Black, this amalgam of unoriginal writing, wafer-thin characters, unimpressive, pedestrian special effects, and unknown cast members actually are quite charming. The most fun scenes are when the spider runs amok outside the lab. At this stage in the film, it's easy to see that the production was given quite a hefty budget to work with, so why not use it to build sets instead of making high school classrooms pass for government labs? And how about a few extras to guard this super-secret facility?

Despite its plot-hole writing, less-than-believable visuals, and amazingly cheap looking first three-quarters, the chaotic ending and likeable young cast keep this otherwise unredeemable, derivative film pure camp pleasure.

Is it aliens? Is it space spiders? Is it government experimentation? Well this college student reporter is going to find out! Was this on Syfy? Was this rejected by Syfy? Were the producers strung up in a web and given 40 lashes? Do you really want to find out? No.

I think most people who have commented on this movie have watched it with the wrong attitude. Get real; What do you expect from a flick blatantly named "Spiders", apparently featuring some generic monstrous arachnid creatures wreaking havoc on people? Unless you're an easily amused teenager with poor judgment, you instinctively steer clear from these kinds of pictures when looking for chills and thrills. There are quality films that offer just that.

I thought I was about to watch a really bad movie, with unintentionally comedic elements and worthless cast, storyline and directing. I was wrong. This movie quickly reveals it's true nature for the perceptive. Taking for granted that the movie was "bad" on purpose, I could actually appreciate the cheesy dialog and all the self-irony that it displays. The characters make illogical decisions, use stupid reasoning and don't try to take themselves seriously. The way in which the plot unfolds and how the main characters figure it out is an obvious parody of the genre, and there are so many details which contribute to that feeling in the dialog and some of the scenes; a guy holding the spider's teeth like bull's horns, making DNA-enhanced mutant spiders from hell seem like a an ordinary casual case of lively struggle, quotes like "This is so creepy. Its like a bad sci-fi movie." and "I mean what the hell is this place?" -"I don't care what this place is, what the f-ck are *we* doing here?" etc. made me at least chuckle at times, because they often raise valid points regarding the absurd setting of the film, and do it with subtlety.

The CGI was decent at times, yet laughable in some parts (especially when the spider was running around walls etc). The spider looks gory enough in close shots. The physical webs are composed of thin rope and you can see the knots tying together the intersections, which to me was a funny detail (c'mon, they could have easily avoided that, would they had cared for realism).

The pacing is fine; There is enough action to keep the viewer at least semi-entertained, assuming they can appreciate other aspects of the film also (I'm not a big fan of "irrational abominable creature vs. bunch of dumb people" films).

All in all, this is definitely not a serious movie, so you should not watch it as one. If you are in a humourless mood looking for some horror, then this movie will probably only make you angry. As a compensation for all the bad ratings this movie has received on IMDb, I have to give it 8/10. I'd dare to say it is more self-aware and intelligent than most people realize.

This movie begins with astronauts on the space shuttle conducting experiments on spiders while in space. Suddenly, a solar flare hits the space shuttle, causing an emergency that prompts an immediate return to Earth. However, since the experiments they were conducting were highly classified, the space shuttle is reported to have burned up upon reentry, when, in actuality, it crash-landed in the California desert. Then, as luck would have it, a college reporter named "Marci Eyre" (Lana Parrilla) and two of her friends by the names of "Jake" (Nick Swarts) and "Slick" (Oliver Macready) happen to be at the same location investigating possible aliens when they observe the space shuttle's descent. Rushing to the site, they see three dead astronauts with injuries incompatible with the crash and another astronaut who is clearly suffering from some kind of severe illness and on the verge of death. All of a sudden, some government agents arrive accompanied by military personnel, and the three reporters subsequently hide in a truck to avoid detection. They are then transported to a secret government facility located underground. Upon quietly exiting the truck, they investigate the facility and discover a range of evidence pointing to some truly horrific experiments. But the worst is yet to come. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I had hoped for a film containing some good suspense and horror. A key component of that would also include some good CGI. Unfortunately, although the suspense was adequate, the horror and special effects were not very sharp. Additionally, the attempts at humor weren't very effective either and only served to give the movie a relatively cheap quality. In short, I was somewhat disappointed in this film, and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.