Joshua Taft

Joshua Taft is a fictional scientist and a minor character from the 2002 film Eight Legged Freaks. He was played by actor Tom Noonan, who made an uncredited appearance in the film.

Biography
Joshua Taft was an arachnologist who owned Taft's Exotic Spider Farm in the town of Prosperity, Arizona]. His farm was actually a small laboratory residence about one mile outside of the main area of town. One of his more favored repeat visitors was a young boy named [[Mike Parker, who usually had to sneak down to Taft's as his mother forbade him from visiting there. Joshua began collecting crickets from a nearby pond unaware that they had been mutated by toxic chemicals. He began feeding them to his spiders, which prompted accelerated growth. He said it was like steroids for spiders.

One of the tarantula spiders escaped from it's cage and bit Joshua upon the neck. The bite was exceedingly painful, causing him to flail about, knocking over the rest of the spider cases. The remaining spiders descended upon him, killing him. His body was then cocooned.

Notes & Trivia

 * Joshua Taft is the second named character to appear in the film, and the first character addressed by name.


 * Joshua Taft had a pet parrot who developed a habit of quoting the line "I see dead people" from the 1999 film The Sixth Sense.


 * Referred to the accelerated growth of the spiders as an "Arach Attack", which was one of the original working titles of the film.