EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS

A small pond in a quiet and isolated town in Arizona is polluted by toxic substances leaking from a barrel accidentally fallen from a passing truck. The substances are absorbed by a colony of various types of spiders, kept in a shack by a strange collector, and transform them into enormous and voracious arachnids. The terrified population takes refuge in a shopping mall to escape the monstrous hungry creatures. Among them are the brave sheriff Sam (Kari Wuhrer, "Anaconda", "Three Days to the Truth"), Chris (David Arquette, the deputy sheriff Linus of the "Scream" trilogy) and the young Mike (Scott Terra), a child prodigy expert in arachnids. The debut New Zealand director Ellory Elkayem crafts a fun B-movie in full 1950s fantasy-horror style with all the clichés of the genre: the initial premise and the warning signs, the first attacks of the predator spiders, the initial disbelief of the citizens that gradually turns into tragic certainty, the isolated acts of heroism, the happy ending. Well-built the special effects made by experts in the field (the staff is the same as blockbusters like "Godzilla", "True Lies" and "The Fifth Element"), the repulsive creatures are all credible and well-designed despite their enormous dimensions. "Arac Attack" is, and does not want to be anything else, a B-movie of fantasy and horror inspiration, and its greatest merit is precisely that of indulging the genre, apparently of second level, to which it belongs. Given the way things are, one can accept in good faith exaggerations and fantastic narrative solutions that in a more pretentious film would certainly raise eyebrows. As well as welcoming with indulgence the lively humor of which the film is permeated, a crude comedy but that well suits the climate of the work and its stereotyped and predictable characters. The young New Zealand director has also decided to pay homage to some classics of the thrill with a series of clear and funny quotes: the parrot that keeps repeating "I see dead people" ("The Sixth Sense"), the survivors who take refuge in a shopping mall blocking the entrances ("Zombi"), the guy with the hockey mask and the one with the chainsaw among the refugees ("Friday the 13th" and "Don't Open That Door"), and finally the giant tarantula that overturns the cars ("Tarantula"). In conclusion, with all its manifest limits, Elkayem's film is an enjoyable and quite entertaining work, although, within the same genre, films like "Arachnophobia" and "Starship Troopers" are of another level.