Uriah43 This movie essentially begins with some astronauts on the space shuttle who are in the process of conducting experiments on spiders while in space. Suddenly a solar flare hits the space shuttle and causes an emergency situation prompting an immediate return to earth. However, since the experiments they were conducting were highly classified, the space shuttle is reported to have been burned up upon reentry--when in all actuality it has crash-landed in the Californian desert. Then, as luck would have it, a college reporter named "Marci Eyre" (Lana Parrilla) and two of her friends by the names of "Jake" (Nick Swarts) and "Slick" (Oliver Macready) just happen to be at the same location investing possible aliens when they observe the space shuttle's descent. Rushing to the site they see three dead astronauts with injuries incompatible with the crash and another astronaut who is clearly suffering from some kind of severe illness and on the verge of death. All of a sudden some government agents arrive accompanied by military personnel and the three reporters subsequently hide in a truck to avoid detection. They are then transported to a secret government facility which is located underground. Upon quietly exiting from the truck they investigate this facility and discover all kinds of evidence pointing to some really horrific experiments. But the worst is yet to come. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I had hoped for a film containing some good suspense and horror. A key component of that would also include some good CGI. Unfortunately, although the suspense was adequate enough, the horror and special effects were not very sharp at all. Additionally, the attempts at humor weren't very effective either and only served to give the movie a rather cheap quality. In short, I was somewhat disappointed in this film and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Adam Peters (53%) A surprisingly decent little sci-fi horror with some nice gory practical effects and some very cheesy CG effects. The acting, script, direction, production values are typical upper end low budget B-movie stuff, but really nothing here is that bad to make it unwatchable or a chore to sit through. The second act set in an underground government bunker would have been a somewhat pointless and poor place in the movie to finish, but the scenes later on featuring a giant spider running amok in the city is very fun to watch and saves the movie from a very mild recommendation to a catch if you can mark from me. Especially for fans of cheapo sci-fi horror.

grngrl711 I watched this movie for one reason and one reason only: Lana flawless Parrilla. Obviously my expectations were very low because I knew it was going to be crap, which it was. Lana herself has called the movie "embarrassing." And, let's be honest, she's come a LONG way acting-wise since then (she has the ALMA Award, a hit show, and hundreds of thousands of Evil Regals to prove it). I mean, I still can't wrap my brain around the fact that the dorky, spunky kid with glasses is now the Evil Queen. Anyway, I digress...Overall, NOT a film you should get into if you're looking for something thought-provoking and deeply emotional with award-winning performances that leave you breathless. If you are, you're going to be disappointed very quickly. However, it's quite enjoyable if you're looking for something mindless and cheesy to laugh at. This movie wasn't really even meant to be taken seriously, which makes it even better. So, a great flick if you wanna kill time and have a little fun. Although, I'm laughing so hard at the person in an old review who said, "Lana who? Don't worry, nobody knows who she is!" That's both hilarious and ironic.

John Crane I remember watching this movie a long time ago and I specifically remember liking this movie so much and I saw it about another 20 more times, now after looking at it again in 8 years I ask myself: "What made me like this movie so much?" This movie essentially tells the story of a shuttle mission gone wrong. When a solar flair hits a space shuttle affecting a select number of spiders that have been injected with alien DNA, it crash lands in a secret government base outside of L.A. Now, after a huge spider is on the loose, it's up to a pretty boy MIB, a somewhat cute college reporter and an oddball group of college photographers to stop it. This movie had some impressive make-up and special effects, really bad acting and voice-overs and did a great job utilizing some conspiracy theories to intensify this story.First off, this movie had some very impressive and very gory make-up in this movie that I remember. Whenever somebody got bitten by these spiders, they become deformed and huge sacks of pus or swollen skin starts to form on their faces and bodies. The make-up really enhances this syndrome and it really brings justice to the "scare factor." The notable make-up jobs would be the astronauts that were in the shuttle and how each of them looked like after the spider attacked them. There is a great amount of gore in this movie that ranges from puking, to spider transformation, to shootings, even to spider bites. There was one scene in particular that I remember for being very disturbing was when a huge spider tunnels its way out of somebody's mouth and attacks someone. There was a great effect when the lead villain turns into a spider and legs start exploding from his back. There was a lot of gore when people got shot or when the camera showed the aftermath of when the spider exploded out of somebody's stomach. When it came to the spiders, they were CG, of course, but for that time and for this kind of movie, the CG was pretty outstanding and the director knew how to utilize the real life thing to accompany for the computerized monster. Though, this is coming from the guy who did Skeeter. For a no-budgeter, it had some very good gore scenes.The acting was far from being good; in fact, most of the dialogue was later enhanced with a voice-over, which really tells you something about the sound quality of this picture. Not only did the actors and actresses do a mediocre job of physical acting, but because they had to voice-dug later, they seemed way too tired to even put effort or character into their voice. You have some okay acting by Lana Parrilla, Josh Green and Nick Swarts, who all did an okay job trying to devote themselves to their characters. However, Oliver Macready, Mark Phelan and Mark Totty, did not do a good job at all, both physical and oral. About half way into the movie I said to myself, in a sarcastic remark, "Wow! This movie has some top notch, brilliant acting." It just seemed like these guys were not that involved with the project, so they didn't put much effort into their characters.What I noticed, almost right away, was the sort of X-Files theme that this movie incorporated into its plot. You have numerous, and almost brilliantly subtle, references to the Men in Black, evidenced by Agent Grey and Murphy. There was a brilliant parody of Area 51, though in this movie it goes by the name of Area 21. The heroine of this movie is a conspiracy theorist and believes in the existence of extraterrestrial beings, while her male co-workers are skeptical, again an X-Files reference with switched genders. There are alien cameos an even a disturbing scene of a frozen astronaut that is wearing an Apollo 18 badge; for some reason that scene creeps me out. It's easy to see where they got their inspiration for this kind of movie and I think it was really well done.Overall, this movie is loaded with some great spectacular make-up and gore effects that are worthy of viewing and a great harbor for conspiracies. Though what drug this movie down for me was the unbelievable bad acting and voice-overs as well as a plot line that has been used over and over again, it's become cliché. However, because there are two wrongs and two rights, this movie gets an honorable average rating. I would recommend this movie to any kind of horror fan simply so that you can say that you've seen it. Because if you haven't, then I'll be shocked, it's the kind of horror movie that you should see once and respect it for trying but certainly not honor. I would strongly recommend this movie to anybody who loves cult classics too. As for me, I really only need to see it once and my whole 20-time campaign still baffles me today.