Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

Truly Dreadful Film

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This above-average "nature's rampage" horror flick beats Spielberg's ARACHNOPHOBIA in terms of hands-down scares - because here, the majority of the spiders are REAL ones instead of unconvincing fakes and special effects. Yep, somebody "borrowed" about 5000 tarantulas to make this movie and the effect is one of the most realistic man vs. beast movies out there. KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is all you could hope for in a B-movie starring everyone's favourite thesp, William Shatner, and a cast of B-movie hopefuls.The plot concerns spiders which have to turn to larger food suppliers after farmers using DDT destroy most of their natural insect food. It has NOTHING to do with alien spiders, as the UK box cover bizarrely suggests. Although the film's structure adheres to the old strict template (minor deaths and mysteries followed up by a full-scale invasion), cult director John "Bud" Cardos (who also gave us THE DARK and MUTANT) takes time out for us to get to know - and care for - the principal characters involved in the antics. William Shatner takes the leading hero's role of a cowboy veterinarian (!) and his acting is pretty subdued here - at least, until the finale in which he is attacked by spiders and goes into a fit of over-acting or a scene where he skips down a road covered with the creepy-crawlies! Tiffany Bolling is the hard-headed female scientist who comes to investigate the mysterious deaths of cows (shown at the beginning in good, eerie scenes) and whose heart is soon melted by Shatner's charms. The only other actor of note is Woody Strode, who here puts in a touching show as a farmer who fears that his farm is going to get quarantined. The rest is your typical B-movie bunch, and fans will be glad to hear that there's a high death toll with literally dozens of folk falling victim to the invading arachnids.Although, as with most "nature's rampage" horror flicks from the past twenty years, there's a certain suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the on screen action, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS offers us some truly great shocks and scares to rouse us from the inaction of the first half. There's a great shot of a spider-covered bull jumping suddenly at the camera, which is guaranteed to put anybody on the edge of the seat, and a frightening moment in which a pilot is attacked by spiders and crashes his plane into a building which explodes. However, the best part of the film is the last twenty minutes, the full-scale invasion which owes more than a nod to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as the survivors board themselves up inside a roadside café and sit it out.There are many scenes of people being surrounded by/covered in spiders which work because these are real, moving spiders, not lousy special effects. The film briefly moves to the town where there's some large-scale chaos with cocooned bodies all over and people crashing their cars into water-towers which then collapses and kills yet more folk. Shatner himself has a suspenseful scene in the basement where he goes to fix a fuse and finds himself covered in the creepy crawlies and struggles for survival. This is classic stuff and a cut above the usual less-than-impressive invasion sequences in similar movies. The film ends with an ambiguous (sadly unconvincing) matte shot showing the entire town has been cocooned in a spider's web, and manages to be sufficiently eerie. KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is a treat of a B-movie for genre fans and one of the more effective man-against-nature flicks out there.

Why did this get 5.9 I do not know. It is just awful. It is not scary. It has an awful ending. The story line is awful. There are good actor in this movie. They wasted there talent. Do not wast time. And do not wast money. Do not see this awful movie. This about kill spiders. I could have liked this movie if the story line was not so awful. The ending really stinks. I give it 1 out of 10. This movie is a big pile of pooh pooh. Do not watch this movie. If you want see a scary movie. See Jaws or Jaws 2 of Jaws 3 of Jaws the revenge. Do not see this pooh pooh. I need more line and I am running out of things to say. Bad movie bad movie bad movie. I can not believe that the same man who wrote Piranha which is a great movie wrote this crap.

The best scene and the best actor in the entire movie is the cow in the opening scene. That cow was the best and I think the cow should have got an Emmy and a Grammy award for that piece of acting. The cow genuinely acted scared in that opening scene. If anything this movie is worth watching just for the opening scene alone because of the cow. Next to the cow William Shatner is also amazingly funny and plays his part well. If you are afraid of spiders I would not recommend watching the movie because you might not get the comedy. I would recommend watching this movie with an open mind and not expecting a serious horror flick.

I admit that spiders scare the bejeezus out of me and that I'd probably feel a whole lot happier if every last one of them were removed from existence; however, as so many ecological horrors of the '70s have clearly illustrated, meddling with the balance of nature isn't wise, and doing so can only make matters a whole lot worse. For example, in Kingdom of the Spiders, the use of chemicals such as DDT have resulted in an army of resilient, deadly and very hungry tarantulas, five times as venomous as normal and a whole lot more aggressive. They also seem to have become more intelligent, which isn't good news for the good folk of Camp Verde, Arizona, who the spiders have decided to add to their larder.With a few thousand real tarantulas at his disposal, and a game cast more than willing to have the horrible creatures crawling all over their bodies for the sake of their art, director John 'Bud' Cardos delivers a B-movie horror guaranteed to have anyone with even the slightest case of arachnophobia squirming uncontrollably in their seats. Even if the idea of a dozen big-ass hairy spiders in the face doesn't faze you, there are plenty of other reasons to dig this fun drive-in flick: William 'Captain Kirk' Shatner as the hero, gorgeous Tiffany Bolling as his entomologist love interest, and cult actor Woody Strode as the token black guy guaranteed a horrible death; a hilarious scene in which the pilot of a biplane screams like a girl while tarantulas crawl on his head; a crazed steer brought to its knees by the spiders; and the entire town running amok as the creepy crawlies attack.All that and a truly memorable final image make this a hugely enjoyable piece of drive-in entertainment.