Spiders 2001 Horror Movie Review

“Spiders” is one of the stupidest giant creature movies I have ever seen. The film starts with the launch of the space shuttle “Solaris”, which is carrying a top secret government payload called “Project Mother-In-Law”, due, no doubt, to it’s horrifying powers. A college reporter is told to cover the story, but she’s more interested in covering a ludicrous story about government conspiracy and aliens, and takes two of her buddies into the desert to look for evidence of nefarious activity. She was tipped off by two aliens whose crimes against humanity solely consisted of stealing and drinking non-dairy creamer. (Really.)


Meanwhile, on the “Solaris” (despite the fact that the name “Discovery” is clearly visible during the stock footage shots), a scientist injects alien DNA into a tarantula at exactly the same moment the shuttle is caught in a huge cosmic storm. The shuttle crash lands in the secret facility being investigated by the three teenagers in what has to be the worst model effect I have seen in years. Interestingly, the post-crash shuttle destruction is CGI, but that effect is terrible too.


Most of the rest of the film is spent with government evildoers, cub reporters, and giant CGI spiders chasing each other around a basement of horrors including a frozen “Apollo 18” astronaut, which inspires one of the teens to remark “It’s like a bad sci-fi movie”, and he is exactly right.


There are some fairly amusing action sequences, my favorite of which involved falling down an elevator shaft only to be caught in a giant web at the bottom. It turns out that the project is about world domination, which plays right into the conspiracy looniness prevalent in this movie.


Eventually a good government agent and the reporter team up and, after finding a spare helicopter with rocket launcher just sitting there ready to do battle with Mother-In-Law, take off for the nearby city where the giant spider is atop a building. (Haven’t I seen a giant monster on a skyscraper somewhere before?) The girl lowers herself from the helicopter on a rope and fires a rocket into the spider’s mouth concluding the movie, although I am aghast to report that there is apparently a sequel (“Spiders II: Breeding Ground”) ready to further the franchise.


This film has some terrible acting, is plagued by insanely stupid coincidences and plot twists, and some of the worst dialogue you will ever hear in your life. None of this should surprise B-movie fans, though, as this was produced by Boaz Davidson, the same man who brought us “Crocodile”.


I think the film is worth two stars for camp value: the sheer audaciousness of the plot makes it worth watching for fans of B-movies.