Eight Legged Freaks - 07/20/02

Well, aside from one glaring problem with the ending, this movie was just that for me, my sister and my mom.

Now, I think that it's a well known fact that mom's scare easy. I've never seen my mom jump so many times, it was super funny.

Freaks was directed by Ellory Elkayem (another New Zealand director next to Peter Jackson), whose first film was Larger Than Life, in 1997... a short black and white science fiction film. Based on the title, one would surmise that it had something to do with the subject matter of Eight Legged Freaks... and one would be right. Larger Than Life was the film that inspired Elkayem to write the feature length script of Freaks, along with Randy Kornfield (Jingle All the Way) and Jesse Alexander (writer/producer of TV's Alias).

The credit on this film that I was interested in, though, was that of the producers... Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. These two (regardless of Godzilla, which still broke even) have a certain flair when it comes to chosing projects... more specifically the ones they write/direct/produce themselves... but they've been known to offshoot their talents to other projects... and this one is certainly worthy of their abilities.

Though, so far, Mark Gordon seems to be the only producer on Emmerich's 2003 film The Day After Tomorrow... I wouldn't be surprised to see Devlin's name in the credits soon... the two have a very successful history together... and you can see their influence in Eight Legged Freaks.

A very strange cast... with only two real names/faces in the film. David Arquette and Tom Noonan. Noonan had a small role... but I couldn't help but be reminded of two other roles of his... that of Francis Dollarhyde (Manhunter) and Ripper (Last Action Hero). He's got a very strong presence and what little he played on screen... well, it stuck with me.

David Arquette is (unfortunately) more formally known as the AT&T spokesman. I hate television. I hate commercials more... and I hate it when celebrity spokes-people are used to flood the market with terrible marketing and shoddy commercial tactics. Ugh.

I loved Arquette in the Scream Trilogy. I thought he was a fantastic actor in those films... along with other roles. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie), Ravenous, Never Been Kissed, Ready to Rumble... I think he plays some diverse (though sometimes silly) roles... and I hope that we see more of him, leading films such as this. He played his usual self... and brings along the same kind of personality to each role that is wholely likeable.

Kari Wuhrer. She's been working steadily since the mid 80's. Some decent work, some B-movie stuff (not forced B like this...) such as Beastmaster 2, Ford Fairlane... other movies I've never heard of. Some television... other films like Thinner, Anaconda, Kissing a Fool. Not really mainstream work, but decent work none-the-less.

In 2000 she was in G-Men From Hell, based on a comic strip by Mike Allred (who created Madman and who is drawing X-Force, among other Marvel titles). That's about the only film that she's been in that I recognize as of late. But, she's been steadily working... and plays opposite Arquette in this film quite well. Playing a female sheriff... the role has been played by a number of women... but it's a strong role, and she pulled it off without reverting to the standard cliche type attitude that would have been substituted by lesser actresses with lesser exerience. All in all, she did a pretty good job. She doesn't have much coming out in the near future that is as mainstream as this... but we shall see what happens to her career after Eight Legged Freaks... good or bad.

Scott Terra is going to be a pretty good actor, in his later years. He did an incredible job with this film... and his look scored him the role of Young Matt Murdock in the upcoming Daredevil movie. I've never seen his previous work... but I was shocked at how well he did in this film. Kid actors always amaze me. They're either bred (Osment) or they just work hard. I can see Terra doing great work in the future.

Scarlett Johansson. Well, she's gorgeous. She's not even twenty. She just came off of last years Ghost World that did incredibly well for the actors, the director (Terry Zwigoff) and Daniel Clowes, the creator of the comic book. She's done some early mainstream work that was heralded as brilliant in The Horse Whisperer and Manny & Lo... I'm sure, just on looks alone, she'll go a long way.

Rick Overton was very well cast in this film. He did a great job as the comedy relief. He's worked on some great films as bit part player and supporting cast. Airplane II, Beverly Hills Cop, Gung Ho, Willow, Earth Girls Are Easy, The Rocketeer, Groundhog Day, Mrs. Doubtfire... he's also a stand-up comedian, which makes sense. His delivery was great, especially in the context of this film.

Doug E. Doug and Leon Rippy round off the remainder of the supporting cast... and both played their parts admirably. When you get into a supporting role that is supposed to provoke some kind of reaction from the audience (specifically in Rippy's role as the rich town guy who's taking advantage of everyone...) and these supporting actors nail their roles... well, it adds to the film that much more. And, unfortunately, these individuals get typecast that way. Rippy has played the badguy in a number of films... he's recognizable that way... he plays the part well... and he did a good job here, along with Doug.

In regards to films with such a large amount of CG, you have to have a good cinematographer. You need to use someone who has the experience with shooting actors and scenes around work that has yet to be done. John S. Bartley has, for the majority of his career, shot television. he's done a large amount of X-Files episodes, along with Roswell, Black River and this years Glory Days. He shot Disturbing Behavior in 1998... and that's about it for mainstream work. I'm curious as to how he got this gig... though with his X-Files background I'm sure he's not to hard up to get work these days.

The cinematography of this film was pretty decent. I think that the work between the DP, the director and the special effects crew blended pretty well. I think that in some cases they took the campy attitude a little too far... with some of the spider voices and the green goo... but other than that, they created a neat giant spider movie that pays tribute to those that came before.

I really enjoyed this movie... and I HATE spiders. I thought it was a lot of fun, with the majority of the fun parts not having been ruined by the trailer. Thank god for that.

Minor Spoiler ahead...

My only problem with the film was that it did not give mention to the remaining spiders... i.e. the Blakistonia aurea... the trapdoor spider. You'll see what I mean.