Year: 

1977

Directed by: 

John Cardos

Rated: 

PG

Country: 

United States

Runtime: 

1 hr. 37 min.

Production Company: 

Arachnid Productions

Written by: 

Alan Caillou

Stephen Lodge

Richard Robinson

Jeffrey M. Sneller

Starring: 

William Shatner

Tiffany Bolling

Woody Strode

Marcy Lafferty

Similar Films: 

The Killer Shrews

Tarantula

Dark Star

Kingdom of the Spiders does something that I would have thought was impossible had the film never existed: it fits William Shatner into a lead role in a rural American setting, pits him against killer tarantulas, and manages, for the most part, to remain serious. Despite its successes, however, the film's overarching problem is that it doesn't know what to do with its moments that aren't directly related to the spider invasion. Shatner performs well, there is adequate horror, and there are elements of the movie that are almost impossible not to like, but it wanders pointlessly between its key scenes. This aimlessness proves to be something that not even Shatner can overcome.

The town of Verde Valley, Arizona, is having some problems. Its colors consist only of shades of brown, and one man is hogging the only two attractive women there. Also, farmer Colby’s prize calf got killed by super-spiders. The calf's death at first seems to be the result of some sort of disease, but veterinarian "Rack" Hansen (William Shatner) and his recently-arrived suburban entomologist colleague, Diane Ashley, confirm that the cause of death was a massive dose of tarantula venom. Apparently as a response to heavy local use of pesticides, the area's arachnids have evolved to being capable of taking down dogs and cows for food. And if they can kill cows, you know what else they can kill: humans.

There are a few missteps at first, in which the film seems to want to be a campy sci-fi/horror parody. There's a tobacco-chewing hillbilly gas station attendant who pronounces "here" like "hya," and at one point during the mystery of the calf's death, Rack drives off in his truck and is accompanied by a James Bond-style soundtrack. Thankfully, the film soon settles into a consistent tone. While the movie often struggles to progress through its downtime, it at least becomes clear in its intentions.

Throughout the film, and especially during the second act, there are too many slow and inconsequential moments. During our breaks from spider attacks and spider attack investigations, we get to watch Rack develop relationships with two women: Terry, Rack's late brother's widow; and Dr. Ashley. Now, in most cases this would work. The problem is that Kingdom of the Spiders does absolutely nothing with these aspects of the story. Rack's relationship with Terry is perplexing. The two engage in heavy flirting, and Terry accidentally calls Rack by his brother's name at one point, but Rack never comes close to actually engaging with her romantically. On the other hand, Rack begins building a relationship with Ashley, but the movie ends before it can turn into anything. On top of all of this, Rack never has to resolve the fact that he has romantic feelings for two women. In fact, he never even seems to give the should-be dilemma any thought. The time the film spends on Rack bonding with these women is totally wasted.

Another aspect of Rack's character that one would think would come into play is the death of his brother. The death occurred before the events of the plot, but the film makes a point to bring up the fact that he was killed on his second day in Vietnam. And that's all we get. It never comes into play in any way later on. The writers (of which there are, astonishingly, four) seem to understand that the characters need depth, but they then prove themselves to have no idea of what to do with that depth. So, these aspects of the characters just sit there unused.

Thankfully, during these failed attempts at characterization, the film does treat us to some startling images. Of course the shots that teem with tarantulas will be enough on their own to scare those with arachnophobic tendencies, especially when the tarantula hordes are on characters, but the spider horror is used in other ways, too. There is one scene in which a full-grown cow is killed by tarantulas. The scene is not the least bit violent or gory, but it provides one simple image that is chilling: the dead cow lying on the ground, with multiple tarantulas on its body like furry boils. One recurring image that is outright frightening is that of entire human bodies wrapped in spiders' silk. These scenes lose nothing from the movie's apparently low budget, and seeing lifeless human bodies treated with no more respect than houseflies is disturbing to the point at which you might wonder how, even considering the absence of blood, this flick got a PG rating.

As one might reasonably expect, the horror of Kingdom of the Spiders culminates in its third act, but it culminates with surprising effectiveness. This portion of the film takes on the same techniques used in Hitchcock's The Birds to create an atmosphere that binds the viewer with fear. At one point, a child on a swing is suddenly surrounded by the arachnids, which are even perched on a nearby chain-link fence. Soon after, the characters barricade themselves in one room of a house, and even the cinematography mimics that of The Birds, as the camera keeps the ceiling in view to evoke the feeling of imprisonment. The final scene I won't give away, but it presents the most horrifying image that the film's elements could have combined to produce.