Kingdom of the Spiders
Year: 1977
Director: John 'Bud' Cardos
Written by: Richard Robinson, Alan Caillou
Threat: Spiders
Weapon of Choice: Fire Extinguishers
Based upon: none
IMDb page: 
Kingdom of the SpidersYear: 1977 Director: John 'Bud' Cardos Written by: Richard Robinson, Alan Caillou Threat: Spiders Weapon of Choice: Fire Extinguishers Based upon: none IMDb page: |
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Other movies in this series:
None
Rish's Reviews
What a fantastic title. I had seen moments from this as a child, but didn't remember
any of it. In fact, I had difficulty separating this from The Giant Spider Invasion
in my mind. But this should've been easy to keep straight, after all, it stars the greatest
actor of our generation . . . indeed, any generation . . . William Shatner!
Set in miserable-looking Arizona, Shatner plays the local country veterinarian who gets
called in to investigate the strange deaths of a few farm animals, only to find that the
area is overrun by legions of killer tarantulas! Oh yeah, and there's a girl.
I imagine this was a pretty cheap film (hey, most Seventies horror was), and the
Revenge of Mother Nature movies are a dime a dozen, but unlike some of this particular
sub-genre (Night of the Lepus and Frogs
come to mind), this sort of works as a horror film. I'd say that's for two reasons:
1) People seem to be legitimately in danger, with characters we like cruelly killed
before our eyes; and 2) Tarantulas are really scary.
But scarier still was Shatner's hairpiece, folks.
Some movies are good, some movies are bad. But bad movies that are highly entertaining
are still good. I'll leave it up to you to guess which category Kingdom of the Spiders
falls into. And though I've said it before, I haven't the words to tell you how much I
love William Shatner. I guess I should stop trying.
I often hear people praise the films of the Seventies as being far superior to those that
came after, due to the maverick filmmakers of the time, the changing face of storytelling,
the emphasis of character over more profitable elements, the pacing, and the pessimism
of the time. In this case, the pace was indeed slower and there was an emphasis on the
characters. They take pains to make the main character likable. Too bad his name is Rack
Hansen. Ah well, the director's name was Bud.
Wow, there was a really cool sequence with people running through the streets covered
with spiders, freaking out and dying and crashing cars. Shockingly (at least by today's
standards), they really killed the spiders, whether running them over, squashing them with
things, or simply stomping on them. A horrific scene with a grown man screaming in a
high pitched voice was funnier than anything ever shown on "Mad TV."
The ending was confusing and probably deserved an Unbelievably Crappy Ending, but
at the same time, it was a somewhat neat visual. Thank goodness real spiders were
used. Plastic ones, puppets, or worst of all, CGI spiders just don't have the same visceral
effect. The film turned out to be pretty good, actually. Of course, I am a little biased
because of its star. I wonder if that's noticeable.
Best Scare: There were parts where spiders would be crawling all over people that
made me freak out. And I LIKE spiders!
I'd Recommend It To: Bug movie fans, and all followers of (the great) William Shatner.
Posted: August 9, 2004
Total Skulls: 11
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup |  |
|
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears | ||
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | |
|
| Secluded location | ||
| Power is cut | |
|
| Phone lines are cut | |
|
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | |
|
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | |
|
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | |
|
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | ||
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | ||
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | ||
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | |
|
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? | |