Spiders, a title that conveys the movie's subject quite well since it is about those small, eight-legged arachnids everyone has already seen in their home or garden. But the spider, for there is only one spider in this film, is not the small, garden variety spider. For one, it is god awfully huge, something that will make any amateur entomologist go into a bout of annoyed tutting (that thing would die of asphyxiation blabla).
But let us not be bothered by the unhappy grumblings of amateur entomologists, ie bug lovers, and look at the spider and the film in which it is set. The film starts out with a bunch of geeky kids whose leader, a young woman whose name I cannot remember, is fascinated by aliens and conspiracy theories. The girl does an interview with someone who claims to be an alien, and who is the object of a lot of painful, unfunny comedy such as drinking condensed milk(get it? condensed milk is for coffee! Haha...ha...what).
After this delightful episode, the gang travels to an old base in the desert where they witness the rather fake and unimpressive crash of a space shuttle...which was, unfortunately for everyone, the space borne center of a strange experiment involving a live tarantula and the injection of alien DNA into said tarantula. Why they didn't choose a mouse or a rat like normal scientists would is uncertain, although a film about a giant man-eating mouse might not have the same appeal as a giant arachnid on alien steroids.
The men in black or CIA agents or whoever they are promptly arrive to mop up this atrocious mess and retrieve the spider, but the poor creature is ungraciously stepped on by one of the tuxedo'd, sunglass-wearing government agents. Much to the chagrin of their leader (maybe he was an entomologist?).
But fear not, for the spider laid an egg in the entrails of an unfortunate astronaut who survived the crash, and the arachnid's ugly, fat, rubberized prop of an offspring is subsequently vomited out by the unfortunate rocket man and escapes into the sinister realm of a top secret underground base.
What can we say? For one, the spider is atrocious and looks like one of those cheap toys you'd find in the bottom racks of the toy section of your local supermarket. The eight-legged beast is pictured using cheap, stiff puppets and some ugly CGI effects that would make even the old Atari console's graphics look like a masterpiece. There are no animatronics in this film, do not be fooled, you'll just see a stiff rubber spider being pushed against/thrown at people.
The actors are also horrible, with acting talents ranging from rubber duck level to sock puppet level. The main human antagonist, who looks a lot like a botched Mr Smith clone, is good for a few "what" moments as he passionately defends the ugly spider with a lot of laughable over-acting and fugly world conquest delusions. The leading actress is also risible, and falls in love with a man in black after a quick session of water-wrestling (I'm not joking).
All in all, the film is pathetic. Monster Flick lovers might recognise a kind of 1950s monster movie atmosphere to the whole enterprise. In fact, the movie should be viewed as a light comedy to watch with friends and a copious supply of alcohol.
But let us not be bothered by the unhappy grumblings of amateur entomologists, ie bug lovers, and look at the spider and the film in which it is set. The film starts out with a bunch of geeky kids whose leader, a young woman whose name I cannot remember, is fascinated by aliens and conspiracy theories. The girl does an interview with someone who claims to be an alien, and who is the object of a lot of painful, unfunny comedy such as drinking condensed milk(get it? condensed milk is for coffee! Haha...ha...what).
After this delightful episode, the gang travels to an old base in the desert where they witness the rather fake and unimpressive crash of a space shuttle...which was, unfortunately for everyone, the space borne center of a strange experiment involving a live tarantula and the injection of alien DNA into said tarantula. Why they didn't choose a mouse or a rat like normal scientists would is uncertain, although a film about a giant man-eating mouse might not have the same appeal as a giant arachnid on alien steroids.
The men in black or CIA agents or whoever they are promptly arrive to mop up this atrocious mess and retrieve the spider, but the poor creature is ungraciously stepped on by one of the tuxedo'd, sunglass-wearing government agents. Much to the chagrin of their leader (maybe he was an entomologist?).
But fear not, for the spider laid an egg in the entrails of an unfortunate astronaut who survived the crash, and the arachnid's ugly, fat, rubberized prop of an offspring is subsequently vomited out by the unfortunate rocket man and escapes into the sinister realm of a top secret underground base.
What can we say? For one, the spider is atrocious and looks like one of those cheap toys you'd find in the bottom racks of the toy section of your local supermarket. The eight-legged beast is pictured using cheap, stiff puppets and some ugly CGI effects that would make even the old Atari console's graphics look like a masterpiece. There are no animatronics in this film, do not be fooled, you'll just see a stiff rubber spider being pushed against/thrown at people.
The actors are also horrible, with acting talents ranging from rubber duck level to sock puppet level. The main human antagonist, who looks a lot like a botched Mr Smith clone, is good for a few "what" moments as he passionately defends the ugly spider with a lot of laughable over-acting and fugly world conquest delusions. The leading actress is also risible, and falls in love with a man in black after a quick session of water-wrestling (I'm not joking).
All in all, the film is pathetic. Monster Flick lovers might recognise a kind of 1950s monster movie atmosphere to the whole enterprise. In fact, the movie should be viewed as a light comedy to watch with friends and a copious supply of alcohol.