This movie essentially begins with some astronauts on the space shuttle who are in the process of conducting experiments on spiders while in space. Suddenly a solar flare hits the space shuttle and causes an emergency situation prompting an immediate return to earth. However, since the experiments they were conducting were highly classified, the space shuttle is reported to have been burned up upon reentry--when in all actuality it has crash-landed in the Californian desert. Then, as luck would have it, a college reporter named "Marci Eyre" (Lana Parrilla) and two of her friends by the names of "Jake" (Nick Swarts) and "Slick" (Oliver Macready) just happen to be at the same location investing possible aliens when they observe the space shuttle's descent. Rushing to the site they see three dead astronauts with injuries incompatible with the crash and another astronaut who is clearly suffering from some kind of severe illness and on the verge of death. All of a sudden some government agents arrive accompanied by military personnel and the three reporters subsequently hide in a truck to avoid detection. They are then transported to a secret government facility which is located underground. Upon quietly exiting from the truck they investigate this facility and discover all kinds of evidence pointing to some really horrific experiments. But the worst is yet to come. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I had hoped for a film containing some good suspense and horror. A key component of that would also include some good CGI. Unfortunately, although the suspense was adequate enough, the horror and special effects were not very sharp at all. Additionally, the attempts at humor weren't very effective either and only served to give the movie a rather cheap quality. In short, I was somewhat disappointed in this film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

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.

I remember watching this movie a long time ago and I specifically remember liking this movie so much and 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, after a huge spider is on the loose, it's up to a pretty boy MIB, a somewhat cute college reporter and an oddball group of college photographers to stop it. This movie had some impressive make-up and special effects, really bad acting and voice-overs and did a great job utilizing some conspiracy theories to intensify this story.First off, this movie had some very impressive and very gory make-up in this movie that I remember. Whenever somebody got bitten by these spiders, 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 syndrome and it really brings justice to the "scare factor." 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 is a great amount of gore in this movie that ranges from puking, to spider transformation, to shootings, even to spider bites. 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. There was a great effect when the lead villain turns into a spider and legs start exploding from his back. There was a lot of gore when people got shot or when the camera showed the aftermath of when the spider exploded out of somebody's stomach. When it came to the spiders, they were CG, of course, but for that time and for this kind of movie, the CG was pretty outstanding and the director knew how to utilize the real life thing to accompany for the computerized monster. Though, this is coming from the guy who did Skeeter. For a no-budgeter, it had some very good gore scenes.The acting was far from being good; in fact, most of the dialogue was later enhanced with a voice-over, 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-dug later, they seemed way too tired to even put effort or character into their voice. You have some okay acting by Lana Parrilla, Josh Green and Nick Swarts, who all did an okay job trying to devote themselves to their characters. However, Oliver Macready, Mark Phelan and Mark Totty, did not do a good job at all, both physical and oral. About half way into the movie I said to myself, in a sarcastic remark, "Wow! This movie has some top notch, brilliant acting." It just seemed like these guys were not that involved with the project, so they didn't put much effort into their characters.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. It's easy to see where they got their inspiration for this kind of movie and I think it was really well done.Overall, this movie is loaded with some great spectacular make-up and gore effects that are worthy of viewing and a great harbor for conspiracies. Though what drug this movie down for me was the unbelievable bad acting and voice-overs as well as a plot line that has been used over and over again, it's become cliché. However, because there are two wrongs and two rights, this movie gets an honorable average rating. I would recommend this movie to any kind of horror fan simply so that you can say that you've seen it. Because if you haven't, then I'll be shocked, it's the kind of horror movie that you should see once and respect it for trying but certainly not honor. I would strongly recommend this movie to anybody who loves cult classics too. As for me, I really only need to see it once and my whole 20-time campaign still baffles me today.

SPIDERS could have been another No-Flash, Even Less Bang DTV horror flick. But about halfway through, the writers got smart and made the final fifteen minutes something that monster movies fanatics the world over would of cheered in an immaculate chorus if they saw it in a movie theater for. Problem is, no one would've had the patience to stay up until then.The plot is simple: The government injects a spider with alien DNA, it lays an egg in someone before it dies, the offspring hatches in a decent gross-out scene, and crap happens. It takes a while to get going, and even once it does nothing cool ever happens until the finale, which involves yet another spider, this one bigger than a large sports car, getting loose in Los Angles. It really is quite the spectacle, one that I thought saved the film from being a total snoozefest.Everything else is average or below-average, except the puppetry effects used for the spiders (there's only three in the entire film). There is one part where the creature is obviously just a prop on the end of a stick, but other than that the practical effects are outstanding for this kind of film. Now about the CG, well, its terrible for the most part.Overall, SPIDERS makes for an okay weekend rental. Don't expect much, and you shouldn't be too disappointed.