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.
