Spiders [DVD] [2000]

stuart

at 8:20 am

Review by stuart for Spiders [DVD] [2000]
Rating: (4 / 5)
Sent out on a story, reporter Marci Eyre, (Lana Parrilla) and her fellow colleagues Slick, (Oliver Macready) and Jake, (Nick Swarts) decide to go to Area 21, a top secret facility. While waiting, they witness a supposedly lost space shuttle crash-land near the base, and go for a closer look only for a team of government agents, led by Agent Grey, (John Phelan) and John Murphy, (Josh Green) arrive at the site and clear away most of the evidence. Hiding inside one of the vans, they manage to find themselves inside the security compound, where the threat comes from a large spider which came from one of the astronauts. Uncovering the origins of the experiment, to inject a deadly form of spider with alien DNA to make the species even more vicious. When the two manage to get out of the facility, they come face-to-face with a gigantic version of the spider. As it rampages through the city, they have to come up with a way to defeat it before it destroys all in it’s path.

The Good News: This was way better than it really should’ve been. The cheesiness and campy attitude are it’s best features. There’s really nothing in the film that should be taken seriously. From a conspiracy-theorist journalist to alien DNA to giant spiders and the final rampage, this film just simply reeks of cheese, and that is good to watch. It really takes off when you’re watching a campy film that is supposed to be taken as such rather than it accidentally becoming that way due to the film’s other negative points. That leaves just about all of the film to have a frantic pace that keeps it watchable. As the entire middle section is comprised of chasing through the military complex, there’s a rapid intensity to the scenes. From the moment where they wander into the lab and witness the experiments in jars this becomes just an endless series of chases and stalking inside, and there’s plenty to love about them. There’s some genuine creepy moments, a couple scenes that are suspenseful and there’s enough spider action on-screen to keep them interesting. The spiders are constantly around, keeping them a viable threat throughout and making it a bit of a struggle to get out. The fact that the webs covering every single place gives it a feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia that is readily apparent from the situation. It looks great and freaky with a haunting vibe, helping to sell the location. The real highlight, though, has to be the ending rampage through the city, which contains tons of destruction to peripheral buildings and objects as well as anything else unlucky enough to be around. It’s reminiscent of the type of rampage from the older monster movies and is quite fun to watch. The big body count for the film also doesn’t hurt it, as there’s plenty of deaths. From the pointless gunshots and whole devouring to the much more exciting being impaled in the back with pincers and emerging out the front or having an emerging spider erupt forth from a body and rip it to shreds in the process, this has a wide variety in here. Several are bitten in the neck quite messily, others are spiked in various body parts and there’s even a few who vomit out small spiders, which looks quite good and comes off in a freaky manner. The moments when the model spider is on-screen aren’t that terrible, as it at least looks like the spider is there interacting rather than the disturbingly fake CGI variants. All in all, this here comes across as better than it should be.

The Bad News: There isn’t a whole lot in here that is off. The biggest one is that the special effects in the movie are mixed. The CGI is quite frankly fake, as are the scenes of people falling down elevator shafts. Then puppet spiders and gore are extremely cheesy, but at the same time pretty cool. It’s just hard to get into them at the end as the main event of the film features a patently fake one. To see the CGI creation wandering around walking over victim that it should’ve snatched is quite easy to find and doesn’t make a lot of effort to view it as a threat. The other thing that bothered me is that the spider’s didn’t walk like spiders. Their way of walking is one of the most horrible things about them, but in this they walk like robot spiders. Also quite easy to spot is that the film really isn’t all the original or creative. There’s a few ideas here and there, but for the most part, it’s a strictly by-the-numbers affair that’s been ripped off countless times before, and this is no different. It can be a detriment to those as this is fun, but doesn’t have enough differences from the pack to offer much to those who want that requirement. Otherwise, this is a fun film.

The Final Verdict: With only a few true flaws in this, it’s a fun, campy if sometimes unoriginal entry. This will mostly appeal to those who enjoy this kind of film or those who love watching giant creatures knock-off a bunch of victims, but for those that don’t enjoy these mindless films, it’s not something that will make you change your mind about the style.

Mr. A. S. Bassi

at 9:42 am

Review by Mr. A. S. Bassi for Spiders [DVD] [2000]
Rating: (3 / 5)
The acting was not that bad, not great either but still good! The Plot A DNA experiment on a rare breed of spider is taking place on a NASA space shuttle, when a freak meteor shower engulfs the shuttle, causing everything to go horribly wrong. One survivor is found on the ship and watched over in a secret location deep in the California desert. The problem continues, as the survivor isn’t alone, as another deadly spiders climbs out of him and goes on a rampage around the ship. Curious reporter Marci Eyre (Parrilla) must now survive, escape and warn everyone before the spider reaches outside the desert.

Most scenes worked very well and some scene was laughable! But I still had fun time watching this movie and what I really liked was the gory deaths in this movie were great. If you like cheesy movies, don’t miss this!.

Pete Murphy

at 10:28 am

Review by Pete Murphy for Spiders [DVD] [2000]
Rating: (3 / 5)
With great gore effects by Greg Nicotero and his gang (Evil Dead 2, From Dusk Til Dawn), and some really bad cgi animated giant spider stuff (don’t know who did it but if I were him I’d keep it to myself), this is a strange mixture of cheesiness, dumb plotting, gallons of “the red stuff”, bad acting….it’s marvellous! Hugely entertaining from start to finish, some amazingly bloody scenes of spiders “birthing” from inside people and a ridiculous plot that requires you to suspend more disbelief than is humanly possible. In short, a perfect Friday night flick accompanied by a few drinks, a few friends, and a bucket of popcorn. You won’t be witnessing cinema history but you *will* be having fun. It’s hard to hate a film this bad. The giant spider rampaging through the college campus at the end is hysterical.