BIG ASS SPIDER!

Stars: Greg Grunberg, Ray Wise, Lombardo Boyar, Clare Kramer, Lin Shaye, Patrick Bauchau, Ruben Pla, Bob Bledsoe and Alexis Peters.
Writer: Gregory Gieras.
Director: Mike Mendez.

Rating: 3/5

The most pressing mental involvement that Mike Mendez’s silly, scary guilty pleasure requires is – where does one place the inflection? Is it Big ASS Spider (maybe, cos’ it’s got a huge opisthosoma)? Or is it BIG Ass Spider (as in a big spider that lives in…ugh, that’s disgusting)?

Though easily shoehorned into the current craze for D-grade schlock such as Pirahnaconda and Sharknado, Big Ass Spider! exhibits smarter comedic chops and slicker production values that place it above such self-conscious efforts, rightfully earning it critical warmth and audience affection.

The film opens with a striking slow motion piece in which our hero, schlubby pest-control guy Alex Mathis (Greg Grunberg), awakens amidst a scene of urban havoc. Audiences are introduced to the titular star as it scales a downtown skyscraper, Kong-style, before the inevitable ’12 hours earlier’ graphic brings us back to the beginning of the hero’s journey (a funny sequence involving the great Lin Shaye).

Most of the film’s first half is confined to a hospital set, where Mathis is being treated for (you guessed it) a spider bite. In the building’s morgue (lit in typically B-movie dark and creepy shadows), a corpse has been delivered with an unwanted eight-legged passenger that makes short work of a coroner and escapes into the airducts. These scenes play well with horror buffs, riffing inventively on key moments in such genre staples as John Carpenter’s The Thing and Ridley Scott’s Alien.

The military descends, led by Major Braxton Tanner (Ray Wise, stoic and dependable) and Lt Karly Brant (Clare Kramer) and, with Alex and his new offsider, hospital security guy Jose (a scene-stealing Lombardo Boyar) in tow, set about securing downtown LA and stopping the B.A.S.

TV veteran Mendez and writer Gregory Gieras (returning to the sub-genre of ‘Exclamation Mark Cinema’ seven years after Centipede!) find a fun balance between comedy and horror. Grunberg (an experienced support player, best known for long stints on the TV series Heroes, Alias and Felicity) is in sync with his director’s vision and makes for an engaging leading man. A couple of gruesome moments (notably, a Raiders…-style face melt and the giant spider’s first big rampage, through picnickers in Elysian Park) bring what is essentially a homage to 50’s era ‘big bug’ pics into the modern film realm.

Perhaps deliberately, special effects waiver between terrific (the spider’s perch atop the crumbling tower is definitely the money-shot) and a bit wobbly (web imagery proves a problem). But all are proficiently staged and in line with the knowing but respectful self-parodying tone that the production wants to convey.