I remember watching this movie a long time ago and liking it so much that I saw it about another 20 more times, now after looking at it again in 8 years I ask myself: “What made me like this movie so much?” This movie essentially tells the story of a shuttle mission gone wrong. When a solar flair hits a space shuttle affecting a select number of spiders that have been injected with alien DNA, it crash lands in a secret government base outside of L.A. Now its up to an MIB personal, a female scientist and a 2 photographers to stop the giant spiders from taking over the city. This movie had some impressive make-up and special effects but it’s plagued with really bad acting and obvious voice-overs.
I think the makeup is what I really like about this movie. When a spider bites somebody they become deformed and huge sacks of pus or swollen skin starts to form on their faces and bodies. The make-up really enhances this transformation. The notable make-up jobs would be the astronauts that were in the shuttle and how each of them looked like after the spider attacked them. There was one scene in particular that I remember for being very disturbing was when a huge spider tunnels its way out of somebody’s mouth and attacks someone. The spiders were CGI most of the time and given the time in which the movie was made and the b-movie status it has… it’s expectable
The acting was far from being good; in fact, most of the dialogue was later enhanced with a voice-dub, which really tells you something about the sound quality of this picture. Not only did the actors and actresses do a mediocre job of physical acting but because they had to voice-dub later, they seemed way too tired to even put effort or character into their voice. Though I don’t think acting is what people want to see even though it would be a plus. The fact that the special effects are top notch but the acting is absolutely dreadful just raises it’s b-movie status up a notch.
What I noticed, almost right away, was the sort of X-Files theme that this movie incorporated into its plot. You have numerous, and almost brilliantly subtle, references to the Men in Black, evidenced by Agent Grey and Murphy. There was a brilliant parody of Area 51, though in this movie it goes by the name of Area 21. The heroine of this movie is a conspiracy theorist and believes in the existence of extraterrestrial beings, while her male co-workers are skeptical, again an X-Files reference with switched genders. There are alien cameos an even a disturbing scene of a frozen astronaut that is wearing an Apollo 18 badge; for some reason that scene creeps me out.
Overall, Spiders is not a bad movie but it’s far from being good too. It’s a fun b-movie and if you are one of those people who doesn’t care about the acting or the lack of tone then you’ll love this movie. Personally, I think it’s a guilty pleasure and I love it for all the wrong reasons. I can’t imagine watching this as much as I did and I can’t imagine me raving about as I did in the past because it’s not that good but it does hold a special place in my heart.
