Ice Spiders |
  • USA / Germany • 2007 • 90m •    • Directed by: Tibor Takács. • Starring: Patrick Muldoon, Vanessa Williams, Thomas Calabro, David Millbern, Noah Bastian, Carleigh King, Stephen J. Cannell, Matt Whittaker, Clayton Taylor, Charles Halford, Steve Bilich, Kiernan Ryan Daley, Cory McMillan. • Music by: Penka Kouneva.     When a young ski team training for the Olympics arrives at the remote and isolated Lost Mountain Ski Resort to focus on training, they're thrilled to find a retired Olympic skier is there to help them train. But their plans are halted when a scientist working at a nearby government lab arrives with the horrifying news that a top secret Government project has produced giant spiders and they have escaped, killing and eating everything in sight.
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Review:
Directed by Tibor Takács this is yet another 'Creature Feature' Sci-Fi Channel original that is far from original & is pretty standard stuff from start to finish. The script features everything any seasoned 'Creature Feature' lover would expect, there's the young teenage cast, the all American hero who has to overcome some sort of fear to save the day, genetically created creatures of some sort developed for military purposes, bad CGI computer effects, an isolated location for the Spider's to attack & the human cast to get stuck in, a corrupt scientist who only cares about the experiment & not human life, a military presence & of course a love interest for the lead hero. It's all here in abundance. Ice Spiders is far from the worst of it's kind that I have seen, it's still not a particularly good film by any stretch of the imagination but I did enjoy it to a certain extent more than I thought I would. The pace is good & from the opening Spider attack scene right through to the end the film never slows down & I can't say I was bored although what I was more than aware that what I was watching was still pretty average stuff. The character's are alright & aren't as annoying as usual, the plot is fairly standard stuff & it's clear not much thought went into other than to hang the basic 'genetically creature giant creature on the loose' plot around & there's a few amusing scenes here if your in the right mood I suppose. The dialogue is of often unintentionally funny & the film doesn't seem to take itself too seriously & while I would hesitate to describe Ice Spiders as a good film I certainly don't think it's a terrible one either.
There is no build up to the revelation of the Spider's in Ice Spiders & one is seen in it's full CGI glory within the first three minutes, the cheap looking CGI computer effects range from the strictly average to the absolutely awful. There's no real build up of tension to any of the attack scenes either so the film lacks any scares or any atmosphere & the entire thing takes place during the day which makes things easy to see but setting a horror film about giant Spider's in broad daylight cuts down the options for suspense sequences & as such the film lacks any. There's some minor gore here, someone is seen ripped in half, there are a few mutilated bodies, some blood splatter & some mutilated animal bodies too.
With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 the production values are alright, the mountain wilderness scenery is nice enough to look at & poor CGI computer effects apart it's reasonably well made. The acting is mostly poor from people who look like they don't want to be there, Patrick Muldoon in particular looks to be putting zero effort into things. Even though Vanessa Williams was forty three when she shot Ice Spiders she looks about nineteen in it.
Ice Spiders is a slightly better than usual Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' although that in itself isn't saying much & is certainly no recommendation. Not bad for it's type but since it's type is usually so awful it's still nothing worth busting a gut to see.
Review by Tonci Pivac from the Internet Movie Database.
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