EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS **

As monster movies and as guilty pleasures go, "Eight-Legged Freaks" is as good as they get and if, like me, spiders give you the creeps then there's double the fun to be had, though if you really hate spiders you might just have to keep telling yourself, it's only a movie. This schlock-horror doesn't waste a minute; before the credits have finished the plot is set in motion as one of those substances that come in barrels, have something like a skull on the side and are usually known as 'toxic waste', and which, of course, make little things a lot bigger, (in this case, spiders), finds its way into a local river. The script is terrible, the acting worse, (look out for a younger Scarlett Johansson; the handsome hero is that plank David Arquette), but the monsters are great making this a very nice throwback to the 'creature-features' of the fifties.