Where have all the chiche's gone?
One thing I have never cared much for is the movie cliché. You know, evil twins and the like. You've seen them many, many times. And, horror movies have more than their fair share. Let's split up. Invincible monsters that cannot be destroyed. Just stick your head into that hole. The inevitable "bad guy who's only out for himself". Telegraphing the means of your salvation to the audience. "Nobody believes me!" The brilliant kid nobody will listen to. The rebellious daughter. Television series die from their inclusion. Movies such as Hollow Man resort to them because they have no original ideas. In general, they are a sign of awful film making.
Interestingly enough, Eight Legged Freaks appears to have spent considerable effort cataloging the horror/monster genre cliché's in an effort to get them into one film all at once, and that they do so admirably. No, the movie is not very good. The acting is awful, there is NOTHING you can't predict, the heroes can escape any hazard, and the extras are toast. But, just the amazing completeness of the cliché catalog makes this movie worth not only watching, but worthy of detailed study by a film researcher. They have them all, some more than once. Had I spent weeks working on a checklist, I could have checked them all off as present and accounted for during this film. So, be sure to see this film, though I don't recommend actually giving them money. Wait for it to be on cable TV. If Mystery Science Theatre ever returns, that would be the perfect forum for it.
This movie has another interesting characteristic that is worth pointing out. I first noticed this characteristic in the old Stephen King movie Maximum Overdrive. It's what I call the surrender to comedy trend. About half way through Eight Legged Freaks you can tell that the director has given up on making anything remotely resembling a horror movie. The rushes have demonstrated that attempts at fright are coming out dumb or humorous. So, they give up. It happened in Maximum Overdrive and it's happened here. They decided to make a comedy. They try to cover it up a bit, but it doesn't work very well. You know that they know they failed and are trying to salvage what they can.
I did expect one thing that would have been fun in this movie, but did not happen. I fully expected the ending (after everyone is happy) to exhibit the ominous shadow of a very large rabbit.
Interestingly enough, Eight Legged Freaks appears to have spent considerable effort cataloging the horror/monster genre cliché's in an effort to get them into one film all at once, and that they do so admirably. No, the movie is not very good. The acting is awful, there is NOTHING you can't predict, the heroes can escape any hazard, and the extras are toast. But, just the amazing completeness of the cliché catalog makes this movie worth not only watching, but worthy of detailed study by a film researcher. They have them all, some more than once. Had I spent weeks working on a checklist, I could have checked them all off as present and accounted for during this film. So, be sure to see this film, though I don't recommend actually giving them money. Wait for it to be on cable TV. If Mystery Science Theatre ever returns, that would be the perfect forum for it.
This movie has another interesting characteristic that is worth pointing out. I first noticed this characteristic in the old Stephen King movie Maximum Overdrive. It's what I call the surrender to comedy trend. About half way through Eight Legged Freaks you can tell that the director has given up on making anything remotely resembling a horror movie. The rushes have demonstrated that attempts at fright are coming out dumb or humorous. So, they give up. It happened in Maximum Overdrive and it's happened here. They decided to make a comedy. They try to cover it up a bit, but it doesn't work very well. You know that they know they failed and are trying to salvage what they can.
I did expect one thing that would have been fun in this movie, but did not happen. I fully expected the ending (after everyone is happy) to exhibit the ominous shadow of a very large rabbit.
- Charles-31
- 27. Juli 2002