Summary: 

          Eight-Legged Freaks takes place in a mine town in Arizona called Prosperity. Foreshadowing the easy spread creatures in the small town, the movie starts with an occasional accident that snowballs in progression as the movie moves forward. Interestingly, the main cause of the danger is not a role completely revealed and developed throughout the film. A truck driver accidentally spills the truck’s chemicals onto a nearby pond, contaminating the organisms that feed off of it. However, the main creature of the topic results from crickets collected by a man named Joshua Taft. Joshua is actually a spider farmer, collecting different exotic spiders including a large orb-weaver spider called Consuela. When Joshua knocks down the containers in which the spiders are contained, they are released into the wild, consuming the crickets with the chemicals along with humans to grow their size. The main characters of Chris, Sam, and Mike attempt to escape the creatures in the minefields while trying to find the gold in the mines. The rest of the movie leads to a resolution of the town against the spiders, along with the government’s attempts to mask the accident in fear of ruining the town’s reputations. The plot line takes a jab at the dangers of scientific materials when exposed to natural organisms, along with society’s response to it. 

Themes:

          Amongst eco-horror creature feature films, the themes and plot are usually fairly similar. However, the message and delivery of such themes varies from each text. Eight Legged Freaks critiques improper safety conditions and chemical companies such as Viroanol Corp in the film. Additionally, the horror in the film relies on jump scares and pure terror inflicted from gigantic spiders. This trope of an oversized creature terrorizing a community takes what was first shown in Jaws and adds a sense of overdramatized comedic flair to it. 

Punishment for pollution:

          A common theme amongst the eco-horror genre is punishment for crimes against nature. In Eight Legged Freaks, the punishment is for pollution. Usually, punishment is meant for specific characters for specific reasons. However, in this film, society as a whole is punished for their gross neglect of the environment. While the pollution is unintentional, the hazardous chemicals dumped into the lake have negative effects on the environment. The driver of the truck that dumped the chemicals has no care to make sure the chemicals stayed in the truck after attempting to dodge a bunny. Similarly, the attempt to remove the chemicals from the lake was poor (thesafetysquad7). The lack of protective equipment and gross improper removal of the waste illustrates the town’s lack of care for the environment.

Therefore, the entire town is punished for their neglect of nature. This theme helps to develop a message that humans must pay attention and monitor their pollution. While the effects of this pollution are greatly exaggerated, this satire aims to invoke environmentalism in the audience. The attacks from the spiders could be avoided if the chemicals had either never been thrust into the lake or if the chemical spill was properly taken care of in a timely manner. If the town had actually cared about pollution and its effects on the environment, then they would not have been punished. 

Man vs. Nature:

          Another theme in Eight Legged Freaks is man against nature. Humans tend to favor their own advances at the sacrifice of nature. In this movie, humans create the very nature they must combat by initially attempting to control it. This attempt to control nature is expressed by Joshua Taft, the old man who owns a spider farm. He uses the spiders as pets in a zoo. This ultimately backfires as his attempts to imprison these spiders ultimately leads to his death. From there, the town and its people suffer from their poor relationship with nature. Another less direct example of humans trying to control nature is the mining company. They take from and treat the mines how they wish, but in the end must sacrifice the mines to save themselves. The townspeople  cannot control the spiders or the mine. They must combat both in different senses. 

The spiders exemplify direct conflict with nature while the mines exemplify how humans' greed and desire can be their undoing. This theme of man against nature further illustrates a message that humans cannot control nature, and their pollution on nature has an effect.

          Overall, Eight Legged Freaks takes a comedic approach to eco horror that may cause the audience to miss the overall message from the film. Pollution is the cause of spider attacks in the film, but by the end of the movie human’s initial sin seems forgotten. A close examination proves that this is a pollution eco horror film, but to the casual viewer the film may seem very outlandish and unrealistic. The message may be overlooked. Eight Legged Freaks is a pollution eco horror film, but strong comedic elements cause the film to miss its mark.