Movie Review: The Eight Legged Freaks

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I had watched part of this movie several years ago in India and had forgotten about it. Out of the blue I somehow remembered the movie about larger than life spiders and searched for it on Youtube and found it. So now I can say that I have watched the complete movie The Eight Legged Freaks.

The movie takes places in a small mining town in American heartland.  A chemical spill leads the local creek getting polluted. Close at hand is the home-cum-laboratory of spider researcher Mike. The spiders consume insects from the creek, caught by mike and grow into disproportionate sizes. They first eat the scientist himself and start attacking life in the town. Cats, dogs, chicken and other small animals begin to disappear and the people of the town are perplexed. One day the phone lines go dead and the spiders attack the town killing and eating everything moving people, cattle, even cars. Nothing and no one is spared.

How the town reacts and how they get over the spider menace forms the rest of the story. There are small sidelines which deal with the deputy sheriff's family. How her teenage daughter and geeky young son handle the situation. Her estranged lover returns and they how they make up and get together again. There are some interesting off road motorcycle riding scenes. It is definitely worth watching and a completely family movie at that.