El Chupacabra

I was not afraid of spiders before or after this movie!

The sci-fi channel has been turning out a wagon-full of cheap sci-fi flicks with some attention possibly being made to creating the odd homage to the B-movie sci-fi flicks of old. The recipe is a low budget, cheap special effects, namely low-resolution computer animation like that first thrust upon us by Babylon 5, and a barely workable plot that involves thin tendrils of actual science. The result is a made-for-TV movie that manages to find its way to the shelves of your local movie store.

For some reason, the military chose to run a top-secret genetics lab beside a ski resort. Why they were making huge-ass spiders, I'll never know, but unfortunately, the over-sized octopeds manage to escape into the woods. As is common with low budget movies, it takes about 70 minutes for anything exciting to happen. Ostensibly, the 70 minutes of movie is meant to develop characters, build suspense, and what not, but with the high cost of computer animation, the spiders did a lot of standing around. All in all, a big investment for such a small payout unless you really, really like Patrick Muldoon.