Arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias, and one of the strongest among those subject to it. I tend to be one of those and so have never much enjoyed horror films featuring giant or menacing spiders. To my surprise, I was never particularly uncomfortable during "Eight Legged Freaks". This and "Arachnophobia" are my two favorite spider films.
This is a horror-comedy, a genre that's difficult to pull off effectively. What makes it work are the personalities (sic!) of the spiders. They're not unlike the title characters in "Gremlins" (another favorite) as they gleefully go about, rampaging and wreaking havoc among the humans (it's worth noting that the film never actually shows anyone meeting their gruesome death nor do any of the humans you come to know actually die). And that's the key - although these spiders are physically typical of their kind, their actions have been anthropomorphized to make them much less creepy. Just as in "Gremlins", they've been given voices - which "real" giant spiders undoubtedly wouldn't have. The human actors, while uniformly competent are consistently upstaged by the CGI spiders. Also, like "Gremlins", the small town setting is populated by a collection of eccentrics, which only helps. The plot is just a device on which to hang the action and comedy. It's silly, but no sillier than nay other giant creature film.
This is a horror-comedy, a genre that's difficult to pull off effectively. What makes it work are the personalities (sic!) of the spiders. They're not unlike the title characters in "Gremlins" (another favorite) as they gleefully go about, rampaging and wreaking havoc among the humans (it's worth noting that the film never actually shows anyone meeting their gruesome death nor do any of the humans you come to know actually die). And that's the key - although these spiders are physically typical of their kind, their actions have been anthropomorphized to make them much less creepy. Just as in "Gremlins", they've been given voices - which "real" giant spiders undoubtedly wouldn't have. The human actors, while uniformly competent are consistently upstaged by the CGI spiders. Also, like "Gremlins", the small town setting is populated by a collection of eccentrics, which only helps. The plot is just a device on which to hang the action and comedy. It's silly, but no sillier than nay other giant creature film.