Ice Spiders

And, if you don't mind my saying so, I've been around. I've seen the legendary "Plan 9 From Outer Space," as well as a whole host of network TV films ("Locusts," "Vampire Bats," "Category 6," "Category 7," "Fatal Contact," whatever the sequel to "10.5" was called) and I stand here before you today to say that cable proves that you don't have to be a venerable broadcast giant to really, really stink.

The plot of the movie is that some government scientists engineer giant spiders in order to harvest their silk for Department of Defense purposes. The only problem is that one of the scientists tampers with the experiment, the spiders get out, and it's up to a fleet of B-actors to stop them or flap on the ground in a spot where a giant spider will later be edited in killing them trying.

This movie enters a qualitative threshold that I did not know could exist. You see, once a film reaches a certain level of "awful," the people involved start to notice (as evidenced by the tongue-in-cheek extra-low budget Adult Swim shows "Saul of the Mole Men" and "Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job"). Somehow, the cast of Ice Spiders was unaware of the lousiness of the film they were making. The only kind of television I've ever seen in my life - which has probably been shortened substantially by the cumulative doses of TV movies I've had over the years - that could rival "Ice Spiders" for quality are commercials made by regional furniture dealerships. Speaking of commercials, kudos to Orkin for their advertising during the world premier of this "film." The computer effects appear to have been designed with software from the 1980s, the acting is beyond awful - and I mean that seriously; some of this comes off like the actors were cold-reading the script - and the overall premise defies description. Thank God I taped it, because somehow I just know that this film can only be enhanced by VHS static lines.

OK to start with--this could have been much worse. The acting was fairly lame--picture stereotypical surf dude dialogue-- and the story itself is one we've seen repeatedly. I think the coolest thing about it was Stephen Cannel. I kept thinking that it was just someone who looks like him. He had a bigger role than I had expected. I have to admit I liked the ending. If anyone has seen the end of the 2nd feature of Grindhouse---I didn't cheer as much but it was OK. :) Don't watch this expecting too much--if you are watching anything on the SciFi Original Saturday nights---surely you wouldn't be doing that anyway. It is an OK way to waste 2 hours if you have nothing better to do.

There's a ski resort far far away from civilization, yet there's a nice little city within viewing distance of the facility. Also next to the resort is a secret government research laboratory that studies spiders, giant spiders at that. The spiders escape... didn't see that one coming.

Anyways, if you pull the fire alarm in this so-called laboratory, a squad of shirtless idiots with m-16's come charging in looking for something to shoot. Some bimbo girl dressed like she's in a winter clothing catalog is the "doctor" in charge of the research and tries to call the shots. Instead we end up listening to some cocky guy with silly eyeglasses and a lab-coat on as he tries to capture the spiders as opposed to killing them. The spiders were smart though. Instead of listening to the horrible dialog going on at the lab set, they go and join the ski resort patrons next door for some snow packed action. They pull off some awesome jumps, tricks, etc. I think the spiders were actually better than the "olympic trainees" working on their skills. Anyways, the spiders squeal with delight, eat people, then ski some more.

I'm not really sure of what else to say about this near-fatal blow to the human IQ. A lot of the dialog was hard to tolerate as it was just flat out awful. All of the characters were undeveloped, clichéd, and brought a whole new meaning to being stupid. None-the-less, the spiders on ice action was hysterical in a sad way. Me and my friend enjoyed ripping on this movie all the way through.

If you can tolerate horrible dialog for some hilarious "creature violence," this film may be worth laughing at. Otherwise, I think it'd be best to avoid it at all costs.

The federal government is at it again in Ice Spiders. In the mountains of Utah where only a few skiers are having a great old time at a resort, our government has a big old giant laboratory where scientists Vanessa Williams and David Milbern have been breeding some ancient giant spiders with a technique that was first mentioned in Jurassic Park. It's also a plot idea that was used in the Lou Diamond Phillips movie Bats where Milbern goes as batty as the scientist who created those creatures in that film. Your tax dollars at work.

The hunters and the skiers are being chewed up, stored and eaten by these critters, the usual mayhem that giant anythings cause among the human population in these films. The guy who takes it the most seriously is ski instructor Patrick Muldoon, once a US Olympic hopeful. He and Vanessa see eye to eye on the giant spiders and each other of course.

I guess the idea was breed these things and then loose them on North Korea or Iran or any other country that was giving us problems. As is usual in these films, the critters get out of hand. The whole cast walks around with embarrassed looks on their faces.

Vanessa Williams lost her Miss America crown over those embarrassing nude pictures. She looks more embarrassed in this film than those snapshots of long ago ever caused.

And well she should.

This was one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen. No Olympic class skiers would ever ski at this resort. There wasn't hardly any snow left. The base of the slopes was just dirt. The blacktop in the parking lot was dry as a bone. The skiers were a joke. Any intermediate weekend skier could beat them. At first I thought the skiers were wearing a back-back, but I realized that was the "spider" special effect. This was not even funny either. "killer tomatoes" was ten times better. The DVD box had a couple of good reviews. I wonder what movie they saw. The good news was that it was only 86 minutes long. I was able to fast forward through it.