The tyranist's thoughts
Before the advent of video tape movies like this were made by the dozens and shown as the second bill at drive-ins around the country. Video tape drove those same movies to the catalogue and shelves of your local Mom & Pop, thereby depriving whole generations of the glorious fun of the big monster movie. It's a shame really that this type of movie is almost never seen anymore.
So there's this little town in Arizona (Prosperity is apparently its name) where times are tough and the economy only looks worse and worse. There is a big corporation that is trying to buy them out, but no one really wants to leave that bad. A random toxic waste spill happens to infect a spider farm causing advanced growth. Well, there's a reason spiders are small.
It seems that David Arquette is the kind of actor that people either love or hate. I come down on the love side and think that he really made an exceptional hero for this particular tale. I've had my eye on Scarlett Johansson since Ghost World and she isn't disappointing here. Add in Kari Wuhrer (who's the hottest scream queen I'd never seen in a horror flick until now--she was always good as Maggie on "Sliders") and a few other pretty good performances and the acting is pretty steady. No huge names here, just some people trying to make a good monster flick.
The script is pretty good. They kept the balance of story and action appropriate. The spider effects were even pretty good. There were a couple of shots that could have used work, but for the most part, they are believable and interesting to look at.
I guess my only real complaint would be that the spiders made human-esque noises once they got big. That's the kind of thing that normally pisses me off to the point of loathing the movie, but I found that it didn't bother me much this time.
I'd compare it to Evolution, but I'm pretty sure that I am the only one who liked that. Suffice it to say that this is the best big monster movie made in years. It is completely worth seeing. Relax, enjoy yourself. They didn't take themselves so seriously that you'll hate them for it and yet, there are at least a couple of jumper moments. I would have squealed but some moron brought his six year old along and she took care of the squealing for all of us.

Rish Outfield's reviews
I too saw Eight Legged Freaks the other day, and while I appreciated some of the same things tyranist did (the special effects, for example, ranged from good to awesome), I didn't think it was the classic he did. I think we've noticed a trend here: he likes everything, and I don't.
But the movie wasn't awful. It was pretty clever, well-written, and a lot of fun (I particularly liked when the jumping spiders were chasing the motorcycles), and tyranist is right, it was a '50s B-movie with nice CGI effects. But it was also stupid and silly. I didn't feel the balance between comedy and horror was always right. It is awful convenient who lives and dies, especially in one groan-inducing instance where a character who should be WORSE than dead, is just fine. Some characters got away easily (like the moron on the bike), while the extras didn't stand a chance I recognized Frank Welker's patented monkey sounds as the spider voices early on, and though the man is a legend in sound circles, his unnecessary squeaking, jibbering sounds made the spiders all the less frightening. Maybe not a rip-off, but wow, this movie sure stole from a lot of films (Tremors, Gremlins, Them!, Aliens, heck maybe even Dawn of the Dead, just to name a few). But the audience was laughing pretty hard, so it may be that I'm just too humourless in my viewing habits.
David Arquette is probably Prince of the Dorks (well, considering his wife, perhaps he's King of the Dorks), but you just have to like him, I can't explain it. Scarlett Johanson was pretty cute, and her mom (Kari Wuhrer) was even cuter. Of course it featured a rapper (Doug E. Doug this time, who I can actually tolerate), which is apparently the law nowadays. And it also featured an infuriating know-it-all kid (imagine if Harry Potter mated with Wesley Crusher) who eggheadedly oohs and ahhs around all the spiders, points out how cool it all is, and is never in any danger because he apparently read ahead in the script to know he survived.
One question I had was, except for the import, were any of these spiders poisonous? I guess it doesn't matter, if you're the poor bastard who got a mouthful of mutant spiders, you don't worry about details like that. The bottom line is that tyranist was right, it was a fun movie, but it was also an irritating one. And the kid lamely survived.
Best Scare: Hey kids, spiders are scary. But it's the first death, with the regular sized little ones that really makes your skin crawl.
Note: Although I dislike the title "Eight Legged Freaks," it does beat the originally planned title "Arac Attack," which I hate.
Note 2: I dare anyone who sees it to listen to the interminable goth rendition of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" that plays through the end titles . . . funnier than anything currently running on ABC television.