Aranhas

Back in the day giant monster movies were all the rage thanks to King Kong and Godzilla. Now they seem to only pop up from time to and usually in low budget films that don't offer all that much. The latest Spiders, is the latest creature feature to crawling onto DVD and VOD, but will it be enough to make your skin crawl or be just another generic SyFy channel style cheese fest.

Spiders follow a city under siege from a new species of poisonous spiders as they mutate into gigantic proportions after crashing to Earth on a destroyed Soviet space station. If the plot sounds ridiculous, it is, but that is usually the case in these sorts of films. If you can't separate yourself for the silly nature of things to come then you shouldn't be investing your time into this film. That being sad, Spiders is a lot of fun. Believe it or not, it doesn't come off like a cheesy SyFy channel as you would expect. It shows that this film either had a decent budget or was just used wisely to make it work as opposed to just slapping something together. The story is pretty straightforward and works for what they are trying to accomplish. It's very reminiscent of the film THEM where as the military are forced to take on giant ants, but here with spiders. It starts off a bit slow initially, but quickly kicks into gear to let unleash the spiders on the city with each getting bigger than the next. Wisely they seemed to have spent a good amount of the films budget on the Spiders themselves which makes this film work even better. The spiders look pretty cool, with only a couple times that they feel CGI. There are some great classic giant monster shots, including an ariel shot of the giant spider running through the city complete with tanks and spotlights that is really cool.

Make no mistake this is a silly monster movie and doesn't try to be anything else. It works because they take it serious in an attempt to create a fun monster movie and succeeded. There are not major stars here and the acting is average, but if you love monster films, then give Spiders a shot when it hits DVD and VOD in March.

Spiders (2013)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Another "big monster" movie with this one here centering on a Russian space station that crashes into the subway system of New York City. At first the "issue" seems to be clearing itself up but soon giant spiders are on a killing spree. SPIDERS somehow managed to get a theatrical release, which is kinda strange considering this really isn't any better than the type of monster pictures that show up on SyFy week after week. This is certainly far from a horrible film but I honestly couldn't recommend it over countless other low-budget "B" movies that I've seen here the past decade. At least with the movies that you see on SyFy they are cheap, fun and offer up some sort of badness. SPIDERS, on the other hand, really isn't all that fun. The title of the movie should have been "Walk Around and Talk" because that's pretty much what happens throughout the running time. We're introduced to our "heroes" who pretty much argue with one another as they walk through the streets of New York seeing all the destruction. As for the spiders, the effects are slightly better than what you'd see on SyFy but at the same time they're still pretty cheap and aren't very convincing. The look of the spiders aren't too bad as they're at least mildly entertaining. Of course, they were in 3D in the movie theater so watching at home I wasn't able to judge that. The death scenes in the film are mostly forgettable and there's just nothing special to any of them. The PG-13 rating certainly holds the film back from being "more" and, again, the stuff you see on SyFy is better.

Parts of a Soviet space station containing spiders crash to New York, which then go on to grow into gigantic beasts. For a just divorced couple it becomes a battle to save their daughter, their relationship and the city. This is slightly better than your typical Sci Fi or Asylum creature feature, but that's not exactly saying much! Much CGI here, not the worst I've seen but still pretty cheap looking. As the spiders grow they become less scary & more silly. Acting is pretty wooden, the guy playing the Russian doctor keeps letting his natural English accent seep out. I watched this in 2D so unable to comment on the 3D. It's all very predictable & instantly forgettable.

Problems With Spiders:

-Not enough spiders. -The spiders don't kill enough stupid actors. -Christa Campbell's botoxed and sadly altered faced makes her look like Michael Jackson near the end. -Not enough spiders. -When every actor flubbed a line (and they all did at some point, some more than others) it seemed like the director just waved them on to continue. -Seeing the same forty or so extras in nearly every crowd scene (watch for the red hoodie). -Not enough goddammed spiders!

I could go on, but it's hot in my apartment right now. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

This movie was entertaining to watch with a script that was well written and the actors did a good job in their roles. The cinematography was good despite some mistakes but since this movie was filmed in Bulgaria their idea of what New York city looks like was flawed and the special effects were just average at best.