Deep thoughts about Big Ass Spider and other SXSW 2013 flicks

As I admitted a few weeks ago, I actually was looking forward to Big Ass Spider! at SXSW this year. And guess what? It was every bit as funny/crazy as I hoped it would be.

The best part about it: Director Mike Mendez and co-scripter Gregory Gieras don't try to be too obviously wink-wink, nudge-nudge clever as they pay affectionate homage to B- and Z-movie conventions. Indeed, I suspect that if you could somehow digitally lift the supporting performances of Ray Wise (as a military official deeply concerned about the eponymous creature) and Patrick Bauchau (as a scientist whose advice is not entirely trustworthy) and drop them into a dead-serious cheapie-creepie of yesteryear, they wouldn't appear out of place at all.

Big Ass Spider! figures into a SXSW wrap-up I wrote for Variety, which you can read here.

Big Ass Spider! No, seriously: Big Ass Spider!

Not gonna lie: I was kinda-sorta traumatized during my misspent youth when I witnessed a humongous arachnid attack rock-'n-rollin' teens in Earth vs. The Spider. Indeed, I vaguely recall screaming out loud and running into the lobby of the theater during a matinee screening of that infamous '50s cheapie-creepie -- and refusing to be coaxed back inside the auditorium even after Revenge of Frankenstein, the second feature on the double bill, began.

Ever since then, I've had slight aversion -- to put it mildly -- to sci-fi flicks involving giant-sized bugs of any sort. And I don't think I'm alone in this regard. In fact, I'm absolutely convinced that Eight-Legged Freaks was a box-office under-achiever a few years ago because arachnophobia is much more widespread than the producers of that movie expected.

So why I am actually looking forward to seeing something called Big Ass Spider! next week at SXSW? Well, for openers, the above trailer makes it look like it'll be a laugh-out-loud hoot. And for another... Well, I  have the lede for my review already written: "In the grand tradition of Penn and Teller Get Killed, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Death of a Salesman, Big Ass Spider! earns credit right from the get-go for truth in advertising."

  
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