Ten years before appearing in the role of Black Widow in Marvel's The Avengers, Scarlett Johansson played a teenage girl who had to fight off giant spiders in 2002's horror-comedy, Eight Legged Freaks.
Eight Legged Freaks is an underrated, B-grade horror comedy mixed with over-the-top, creature feature roots from New Zealand director Ellory Elkayem. Elkayem co-wrote the film's script with Jesse Alexander, who was one of the writers and executive producers of the hit superhero show, Heroes. David Arquette, of Scream fame, had the leading role as Chris McCormick, a man who becomes entrenched in the horror of massive spiders invading his small town after they take up residence in the mines his family has owned for years.
As the spiders invade and begin to overpopulate the small town of Prosperity, Arizona, which threatens the town's residents, a group of survivors - led by Arquette and the town's sheriff, Sam (Kari Wuhrer) - must band together in the fight to stop the spider horde.
Johansson's role in Eight Legged Freaks was Ashley Parker, the sheriff's daughter. While it was one of her earlier feature film roles - one year before she appeared in Lost in Translation - Johansson's talent was still obvious and palpable despite the film being somewhat campy and hard to flex any serious acting muscle or showcase raw skills. As it stands, the film is enjoyable for being utterly ridiculous, and Johansson played her role as a traditional teenage girl to the same level. The film plays really closely to the chest of other 'giant creature' horror films, such as The Blob of the 1950s, yet with a more modern twist. For example, when the film's action starts to kick into high gear, Ashley breaks up with her boyfriend Bret (Matt Czuchry, Gilmore Girls), who then takes off on his motorcycle with friends before being attacked by giant, jumping spiders and narrowly escapes.
By nature, Eight Legged Freaks walks a tightrope between the director's attempts to play against arachnophobic audience members with n0-holds-barred hilarity. Arquette gives a stand-out performance and Johansson, while clearly talented for her young age, fades to the background to make way for the lead characters, though she has some memorable scenes that are fun for fans of the actress' more recent career. For example, her character almost gets captured by a giant orb-weaver spider, and it's just as ridiculous as one might expect.
While likely not the film that got Johansson too many of her more serious roles, it shows the depth and ability of the young actress, who ended up landing some pretty substantial roles after Eight Legged Freaks' premiere. In 2003, she appeared in Girl With A Pearl Earring. In 2005, Johansson appeared in the Woody Allen film, Match Point. Christopher Nolan's The Prestige followed in 2006, and eventually, Johansson's path led to the Marvel Cinematic Universe where she embraced the arachnid in a different way by becoming Black Widow.
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