Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

[Cabrini Green]

KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977)

Who else likes this film? I just bought it in a pawnshop. It is an above average nature vs man movie from the seventies. It stars William Shatner who is a little more subdued then normal but still reigns in an over- the-top gig. When he isn’t busy chugging beers or hitting on every female cast member (just like he did in American Psycho 2) he finds time to rope steers, perform labs tests on a sick cow, and rescue small children from deadly tarantulas. The plot concerns the several spiders moving in to the Arizona habitat due to pesticide spraying. The spiders turn aggressive and kill a cow and a pet dog. The mayor wants to cover it up since the county fair is three days away and they are having a spider invasion. The countryside is soon filled with spider dirt hills. The real stars of the movie are the arachnids as the filmmakers use hundreds of real tarantulas so they are all over the walls and attack the town in droves. It will probably be a long while before we will ever see real spiders on the screen instead we will get CGI effects, which aren’t even half as memorable. Another thing is the spiders that are stomped on during the finale are actually killed. Try getting away with that in today's climate. I remember seeing this film as a young kid and it frightened me quite good. That must count for something.
7/10



[This message has been edited by Cabrini Green (edited 07-28-2002).]

[The Claw]

This is probably the only William Shatner movie i could ever stomach, sorry but star trek is not my cup of tea, and never will be my cup of tea, its just not good. but enough star trek, i saw this movie on late night tv a year or so back, and i thought it was a good nature goes crazy and kills people, but i would love to see night of the lepus, killer bunnies, damn that must be so great.

[ColonelColinCaine]

I saw the last 45 minutes of this flick at the tender age of 7, about 10 years ago, on UPN. Unfortunately, I have been unable to see it since.
At the time, I was fascinated with tarantulas, and this flick scared me shitless, and with good cause. You see, my mom always used to tell me stories about how back in the sixties, the tarantulas used to migrate through Bellville every 7 years. The streets would literally be crawling with big, black, hairy tarantulas, and people would just go along their business. The streets were abundant with squashed arachnids.
She told me how she'd sit on her granny's front porch and watch them crawl out of the trees, across the yard, and into the streets, sometimes even crawling up on the porch.
Anyways, over the years, all the pesticides killed most of the tarantulas off, and every now and then you might see a few scrawny bastards walking around, but that's it.
At the time, we lived just five miles from Bellville, so seeing this movie was like seeing my mom's story as a reality, and I was terrified that it was going to happen to our town.
Of course, nothing happened, but still, I'll never forget just how badly this flick scared me. Especially that horrifying ending!(shivers)

Anyways, this flick has been long out of print, and I think it's about time someone put out a DVD. I really don't care about extras, just as long as I finally get to see the film that terrified me so much as a child. Forget "Arachnophobia"; screw "Eight Legged Freaks"(even though I did like both films)! This is the best killer spider movie I've ever seen!

[Cushing]

Kingdom Of The Spiders is THE best of the 70s nature gone mad movies with Day Of The Animals coming a close second.
It's well made with plenty of cheesy horror moments .Plus it's got a great theme song and "The Shat" in a cowboy hat.......perfect.

[Carrie]

Yes!

I love "Kingdom of the Spiders"!

It freaked me out as a kid, and I happen to be a HUGE fan of "Shat", so as far as I'm concerned him being in the film was just a bonus.

Great, fun flick!