Let’s be honest:  spiders are scary.  Hell, my wife can tell you that.  But while spiders do give tons of people the creeps, the fact of the matter is that the normal person could end a spider with a simple stomp, smash or splat.  And if the problem persists?  Call your local exterminator and you’re all set.  That is unless, of course, you’re dealing with a Big Ass Spider, in which case you may need to put the rolled up magazine down and grab your bazooka.  Mike Mendez’s film, “Big Ass Spider!” wreaks delightful havoc on the citizens of Los Angeles with hilarious and surprisingly scary results.

If you’re somebody who happens to judge a book (or movie) by its cover, then let me warn you here: yes, you get everything the title and DVD art promises: a big ass spider climbing buildings and battling well-armed military.  Hell, the ridiculous and wonderful opening scene of the movie takes care of that.  But that’s just the set up to a much more charming and complete monster feature.  “Big Ass Spider!” is not your cookie-cutter low budget movie monster – it’s a well-acted film that offers something to a wide variety of horror fans.  Gruesome deaths?  Check.  Laughs?  Check.   A well-designed and legitimately scary movie monster?  Big ass check.

After all, a monster movie is only as good as its monster, and luckily for “Big Ass Spider,” the filmmakers took this creature to a very real place with some spectacular visual effects and design.  This spider doesn’t mess around, and aside from some intentional tongue-in-cheek moments, the spider was pretty damn menacing and always seems to have another nasty trick up its sleeve.  “Big Ass Spider!” succeeds in the sense that I often found myself rooting for the monster, and when you’re dealing with beasts of epic proportion, it really shouldn’t be any other way.

That being said, our heroes Alex (Greg Grunberg), the everyman exterminator, and his hilarious Latino side-kick Jose (Lombardo Boyar) are just as fun to cheer for as the spider itself.  They’ve got the attitude, the weaponry and the knowhow to be a perfect match against the spider…not to mention a plethora of laugh-out-loud one-liners along the way.  Throw in a terrific supporting cast and a fresh script, and pretty much everything about “Big Ass Spider!” feels just right.  You can tell that everyone involved put their all into this project from day one – this film has tremendous heart.

“Big Ass Spider!” well exceeded my expectations and sets the bar pretty high for low budget giant monster movies in the future.  If you’re a fan of the monster genre or have a fear of spiders in general, then get your big ass off the couch, call your crew and pop open a six-pack.  “Big Ass Spider!” is a bad ass flick!

“Big Ass Spider!” is now available on DVD and Blu Ray!  Or get it on iTunes!  For more on “Big Ass Spider!” visit the films official webpage, Facebook and twitter.