Kingdom of the Spiders

"Kingdom of the Spiders" has earned a bit of notoriety in the 20+ years since its release, mainly because it features Captain Kitsch himself, William Shatner. However, this is actually a decent, watchable (though somewhat intense) horror film.

"KOTS" was one of the numerous "nature on the rampage" films that (pardon the pun) swarmed into theaters in the mid to late 1970s, riding the successful crest of Steven Spielberg's "Jaws". It seems to draw inspiration not only from that film (in that it is set in a small town that relies on a summer festival to survive), but also "The Birds" (an antagonistic romance between the two leads, a small town turned into utter chaos) and even "Night of the Living Dead" (the main characters ultimately wind up barricading themselves in a house to survive the onslaught).

The plot is typical: Shatner plays a veterinarian in a small Arizona town who is baffled by the sudden death of a seemingly healthy calf. When he asks for help from a university, they send an entomologist, played by Bolling, who informs Shatner that the animal died from a massive dose of spider venom. Sure enough, an investigation uncovers a massive "spider hill", a kind of giant ant hill inhabited by hundreds of tarantulas, in a local farmers' field, and many others are discovered later. Bolling theorizes that the normally solitary tarantulas have banded together to find food since farmers have killed their natural prey through overuse of insecticides. The hairy little devils show they have also become quite intelligent, as they carefully disrupt attempts to eradicate them, and ultimately invade the town.

Although the script is paper-thin at times, the special effects are well-done, giving the viewer a genuine "this could really happen!" feeling. Not recommended for those who suffer from real-life arachnophobia, but highly recommended for anyone looking for a good thriller.

Because I am pretty damn well scared of spiders, this film really sh*t me up. The acting and the dialogue are pretty risible, but theres some good effects (for the budget) and there are some genuinely disturbing moments especially when a man goes up in a plane and there are dozens of huge spiders in the cockpit with him, and they crawl all over him, and he can't do anything, and one of them goes on his FACE and he starts to scream and its the most genuinely frightening scream that I have ever heard, and when spiders take over the town and there is panic everywhere. The shock ending is great as well, and pretty revolutionary for the time. This film is a little like Night Of The Living Dead, in that the characters end up boarded up in a farm house, with the enemies swarming outside. And they look out of the window..... Well, I guess you'll just have to watch the movie.

Top notch nature-on-the-rampage thriller takes its time getting started, but emerges a real grabber. It's extremely well directed (by John "Bud" Cardos), with lots of great animal action. It's solidly acted by a sturdy cast led by the almighty William Shatner. It builds to one hell of an intense "Night of the Living Dead" style climax, intercut with catastrophic scenes in the local town that makes one wonder how the characters can possibly hope to prevail. The onslaught of ferocious tarantulas is awe-inspiring.

The Shat, at his charismatic best, plays "Rack" Hansen, amiable small town veterinarian who calls in big city entomologist Diane Ashley (70s B movie hottie Tiffany Bolling) when faced with the death of rancher Walter Colby's (Woody Strode) prize calf. She realizes that the cause of death was injection of spider venom. Soon scores of tarantulas swarm through the desert, attacking humans and other larger life forms basically because the over use of DDT has eliminated the arachnids' normal food supply.

Shatner, Bolling, and the always excellent Strode are well supported by Lieux Dressler, David McLean, Natasha Ryan, Altovise Davis, Marcy Lafferty (Shatners' then-wife, playing his sister- in-law), Roy Engel, and Hoke Howell. The movie is nicely photographed by John Arthur Morrill on picturesque Arizona desert locations. The images of numerous extras covered with tarantulas - and webbing as well - is pretty chilling. There's a touch of "Jaws" in the screenplay by Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou in that the local mayor (Engel) doesn't want anything to hurt the success of the county fair going on. And the implications of that final shot are spooky.

A very fine movie of its type.

Eight out of 10.

Greetings from the other side. This is an awesome 70's B movie.

I first seen this movie when I was around 10 years old, and I thought it was freaky back then. You also get to watch William Shatner battle millions of spiders! Price of admission right there.

There was basically no budget, but they did very well with what they had. It is still very intertaining. Considering the lack of money your never bored for very long. It's becomes scene after scene of the spiders invading.

Chick making supper, and in come the spiders. Dude in a crop duster spraying poison on them, and in come the spiders!

I just finished watching it again, after around 40 years and it's not as freaky as when I was 10, but I still found it very watchable. Remember, it's a B movie, done with no money, and it's still better than almost everything coming out of Hollywood these days.

I have no idea how old I was when I first saw this movie, maybe 9 or 10 and yes, I'm happy that we don't have any biting, poisonous spiders here in Germany. The plot is better than most of this genre, it's good structured and it lacks a stupid showdown with a giant monster breeding millions of smaller beings. Instead, it's an open end an an appeal against the abuse of pesticides. Big bonus. And the tarantulas are soooooo yucky. I even think this movie is the cause for my brothers aracnophobia. One thing that upsets me in almost every of this kind of movies is that the "hero" (in this case Captain Kirk) saves a child. I like "Smilla's sense of snow" because this annoying inuit boy is thrown off the roof. Kill more kids in movies!!! Same rights for everyone!!!!