Tarântulas

Two would-be coffee exporters / human traffickers (Tom Atkins and Howard Hesseman) run into trouble when they discover some unexpected, eight-legged stowaways on their cargo plane. It seems that the hairy arachnids of the title have decided to forfeit their native Ecuador for the good old USA. Going from bad to worse, the ill-fated flight crashes just outside of the small town of Meadowmere, California.

When the tiny, fanged passengers fan out on their mission of destruction, it's up to the crusty town doctor (Pat Hingle) and cranky fire chief (Claude Akins) to combat this horde of creeping doom.

There's also a big orange crop that simply must be harvested, or it's greedy owner will have an aneurysm. His blindness to the unfolding tragedy around him is reminiscent of that exhibited by the soulless mayor in JAWS.

As made-for-TV movies go, TARANTULAS: THE DEADLY CARGO isn't bad, though the cheeeze-factor is quite high. Some of the death scenes are surefire chuckle-inducers! Of course, several unbelievable / absurd events take place for no discernible reason, including the explosive "motorcycle jump" sequence. Still, it's all a lot of fun to watch, as long as you have a hankering for enjoyable nonsense...

I have to admit, I was surprised by this movie. I bought it as part of a 2 DVD set with "Ants" for $5. Needless to say, I was expecting a "so bad it's good" movie along the lines of "Rockula". Instead, I found an interesting, if unspectacular... thriller? Horror movie? I really don't know what this is. It's not terribly scary, and the only really tense moments come at opposite ends of the film. Nevertheless, this is a good movie. It has a solid script, fairly god acting, (usually) and great music from Mundell Lowe. That's not to say it doesn't have it's flaws. The "cute kid" of the movie is less than competent, and I'm being nice. It also feels like the director doesn't use his full potential during the entire movie. During the climax, we see that he is a genuinely good director, capable of injecting tension into a scene, but just seems to be coasting through most of the movie. Hopefully, his other movies draw on that potential.

Possibly one of the best and most suspenseful made-for-TV creature-feature flicks accomplished during the 70's decade, "The Deadly Cargo" nearly equals the menacing atmosphere of classic and more famous spider films like "Kingdom of the Spiders" and "Arachnophobia". Of course, you shouldn't expect a bloodbath, partly because it's a TV-production and partly because… well, tarantulas aren't exactly capable of tearing people to pieces. But hey, at least the suspense is constant and the plot moves forward at a satisfying pace. Two sleazy coffee smugglers, one of them being Tom Atkins of "Night of the Creeps" and "Maniac Cop", fly a cargo full of Ecuadorian coffee beans and political fugitives towards California and through a thunderstorm. The cargo is infested with "Banana Spiders"; the deadliest kind of tarantulas in the world. With the plane severely damaged by the storm and the pilot wounded, it crashes down in the fields surrounding the orange-producing & exporting town of Finleyville. The spiders escape, all hell breaks loose and pretty soon the entire town lives in a state of hysteria. The script is solidly penned down, partly courtesy of Guerdon Trueblood (director of 70's favorite "The Candy Snatchers") and Stuart Hagmann's direction is surefooted. At least during the first half, the plot contains a few surprising shock-elements and unlikely victims (that'll teach them to poke animals with sticks!) The second half is very muddled and particularly the unexciting climax is a letdown. Overall a decent film that deserves a slightly better rating around here.

The JAWS craze went beyond hungry fish as the TV-Movie TARANTULAS: THE DEADLY CARGO winds up with a town torn between business and people's safety, with cranky Bert Remsen in the Murray Hamilton mayoral position, running an orange mill where the furry-legged-critters wind up...

That's after what seems like two separate short films, especially the intro where grungy maverick pilot/smugglers Howard Hessmann and Tom Atkins sneak coffee beans away from the local crooked government, and they wind up as Janet Leigh-from-PSYCHO characters in that they only seem permanent...

After crash-landing in the orange crop town, inadvertently bringing the titular CARGO along with them, this otherwise title-oriented creature-feature builds mystery/thriller tension as random deaths are initially enigmatic, disconnected with the tarantulas and, before computers, fearless crews known as spider wranglers provided the genuine article, making for more bonafide viewer-cringe moments...

Although. Visually, they're a very beautiful black and yellow color, and are actually known as Banana Spiders, shown a lot in the finale when buried lead Deborah Winters, older sister of LITTLE HOUSE child actor Matthew Labyorteaux and owner of a local airfield, is eventually teamed with Charles Frank as her boyfriend/partner, Pat Hingle the town doctor and Claude Akins the stalwart fire chief, who, although capable enough as a banded group, were more intriguing on their own before everything got figured out, far too soon.

I saw this thing when I was eleven, so I related most to Matthew Laborteaux who was not yet on Little House on the Prairie. I rooted for him when he was teasing the spider with a stick and was dismayed when he met his fate. My sister, who hates spiders, jumped constantly during this thing. I had to argue with my brother, who wanted to watch 'Charlies Angels in Hawaii' or something. I eventually saw this movie tho. Like some bad influence from Irwin Allen, the spiders, which were all over the small town, end up in the warehouse with the produce, the town's main source of income and major export. A truly strange plan for killing the spiders is hampered by a bad, bad man, which endangers those within the warehouse with the spiders. It's not one you would want to watch twice, but once would leave it stuck in your mind. Check out 'Kingdom of the Spiders' with William Shatner tho. It's better.