Of my ever growing collection of wrestlers appearing in films and TV, my small section of movies that star David Arquette are some of my favorites. He is most famously known as Deputy Dewey from the Scream franchise and for having held, albeit briefly, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship in 2000 after filming Ready to Rumble. I find it fascinating that a fan of wrestling who happened to be an actor had a very small title run. Although David Arquette wasn’t a huge fan of the idea of holding the title, I thought it was a neat legacy for him to have and without that short stint in WCW, I wouldn’t even be writing about him on this blog. More recently David Arquette has been spotlighted in the sports entertainment world, his feud with RJ City leading to a handful of appearances including a death match with Nick Gage. I thought it would be fun to cover some films from Arquette’s ever growing fimography during the holiday season.
I’ve watched a lot of movies since becoming more than just a casual film fan and not all of them turn out to be gold, however, I find it important to find some good in each movie I watch. What is the point of being a fan of films if we’re not ready to experience a film with a positive attitude and the hope to enjoy it? Granted we’re not going to love every film we see but we can at least try to find some enjoyment in everything we watch. This may seem like an out of place statement and may even come across as ranting but not everything I review here on this blog is a mega million dollar budget film and it is important I not lose sight of why I have undertaken an endeavor to see every film that stars a wrestler I can find.
Well I’m sure that’s enough proselytizing so on to the feature for today, Eight Legged Freaks. Eight Legged Freaks is about Chris McCormick, played by David Arquette, who comes back to his hometown of Prosperity, Arizona, to stop the sale of the family mine to a large chemical company that has been using the town for storage. It just so happens that the same chemical company has truck drivers hauling loads of dangerous chemical who are afraid to hit rabbits with their trucks. Upon losing control of his vehicle a driver loses a canister of toxic chemicals that falls into the nearby body of water. There is an exotic spider breeder and salesman who lives near the site of the accident who has been feeding his spiders crickets from around the water. Why he is skimming crickets, who are terrestrial insects, out of water is never explained but we don’t need explanations because this movie is B-Movie goodness through and through. The spiders, upon ingesting the crickets are growing at a rapid pace and soon become so large that they eat the arachnid collector, Joshua, played by Tom Noonan. They then skitter off into the nearby McCormick Mines. The spiders wreak havoc on the town first by eating neighborhood animals and then by attacking the townsfolk. This movie is all I could want and more when it comes to a movie about giant spiders, I’m a fan of the older monster movies with gigantic insects and the like terrorizing towns, such as Them and Empire of the Ants.
David Arquette is an excellent actor. He’s played cops, goofy teenagers obssessed with wrestling, military privates who smoke marijuana, and more throughout his 28 year career in film. His portrayal of Chris in this movie is quite enjoyable being an average Joe who encounters an extraordinary circumstance, giant spiders. Chris is able to step up and help to eradicate these eight legged freaks and Arquette is perfect in his role in my opinion. Scarlett Johansson is also in this film as Ashley Parker, the daughter of the sheriff, Samantha Parker, played by Kari Wuhrer. Kari also starred in 1997’s Anaconda, another giant animal film. All in all you can’t go wrong checking out Eight Legged Freaks, it’s a perfect mixture of tense and funny. The graphics of the spiders are a bit dated but it added to my enjoyment of the film. Grab some chocolate covered crickets, beer and get ready for a fun flick!
Arquette as Chris McCormick
Scarlett Johansson as Ashley Parker
Wrestling With Film 