Leofwine_draca This above-average "nature's rampage" horror flick beats Spielberg's ARACHNOPHOBIA in terms of hands-down scares - because here, the majority of the spiders are REAL ones instead of unconvincing fakes and special effects. Yep, somebody "borrowed" about 5000 tarantulas to make this movie and the effect is one of the most realistic man vs. beast movies out there. KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is all you could hope for in a B-movie starring everyone's favourite thesp, William Shatner, and a cast of B-movie hopefuls.The plot concerns spiders which have to turn to larger food suppliers after farmers using DDT destroy most of their natural insect food. It has NOTHING to do with alien spiders, as the UK box cover bizarrely suggests. Although the film's structure adheres to the old strict template (minor deaths and mysteries followed up by a full-scale invasion), cult director John "Bud" Cardos (who also gave us THE DARK and MUTANT) takes time out for us to get to know - and care for - the principal characters involved in the antics. William Shatner takes the leading hero's role of a cowboy veterinarian (!) and his acting is pretty subdued here - at least, until the finale in which he is attacked by spiders and goes into a fit of over-acting or a scene where he skips down a road covered with the creepy-crawlies! Tiffany Bolling is the hard-headed female scientist who comes to investigate the mysterious deaths of cows (shown at the beginning in good, eerie scenes) and whose heart is soon melted by Shatner's charms. The only other actor of note is Woody Strode, who here puts in a touching show as a farmer who fears that his farm is going to get quarantined. The rest is your typical B-movie bunch, and fans will be glad to hear that there's a high death toll with literally dozens of folk falling victim to the invading arachnids.Although, as with most "nature's rampage" horror flicks from the past twenty years, there's a certain suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the on screen action, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS offers us some truly great shocks and scares to rouse us from the inaction of the first half. There's a great shot of a spider-covered bull jumping suddenly at the camera, which is guaranteed to put anybody on the edge of the seat, and a frightening moment in which a pilot is attacked by spiders and crashes his plane into a building which explodes. However, the best part of the film is the last twenty minutes, the full-scale invasion which owes more than a nod to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as the survivors board themselves up inside a roadside café and sit it out.There are many scenes of people being surrounded by/covered in spiders which work because these are real, moving spiders, not lousy special effects. The film briefly moves to the town where there's some large-scale chaos with cocooned bodies all over and people crashing their cars into water-towers which then collapses and kills yet more folk. Shatner himself has a suspenseful scene in the basement where he goes to fix a fuse and finds himself covered in the creepy crawlies and struggles for survival. This is classic stuff and a cut above the usual less-than-impressive invasion sequences in similar movies. The film ends with an ambiguous (sadly unconvincing) matte shot showing the entire town has been cocooned in a spider's web, and manages to be sufficiently eerie. KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS is a treat of a B-movie for genre fans and one of the more effective man-against-nature flicks out there.

cyrus-66167 The best scene and the best actor in the entire movie is the cow in the opening scene. That cow was the best and I think the cow should have got an Emmy and a Grammy award for that piece of acting. The cow genuinely acted scared in that opening scene. If anything this movie is worth watching just for the opening scene alone because of the cow. Next to the cow William Shatner is also amazingly funny and plays his part well. If you are afraid of spiders I would not recommend watching the movie because you might not get the comedy. I would recommend watching this movie with an open mind and not expecting a serious horror flick.

tnrcooper One of the "man vs. nature" movies of the '70s and quite well-done. Real spiders were used in the making of the film and this adds to the creepiness of the film. Reportedly 10% of the $500,000 budget went on the cost of the spiders. I'm not convinced animals WEREN'T hurt in the making of the film since we see people spraying them, walking through town on them, and in other places. The film is about a sudden infestation of spiders in a sleepy Arizona town where a calf has been bitten. The owner of the calf, Walter Colby (Woody Strode) doesn't know how the calf died but upon an examination by the local vet Rack Hansen (William Shatner) and a sample of the animal's fluids being sent out to big-city entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling), we learn that a potentially very dangerous spider is responsible for the bite. Soon more mysterious deaths occur and the experts identify a potentially more serious problem.There are many genuine scares here - as I said, in part because the spiders were real but also because director John 'Bud' Carlos paces the movie nicely and allows the tension to ratchet up. We see many close calls and increasingly serious situations. Carlos allows the tension to build up slowly and that ensures that the tension release is greater. Many of the scares come from the inevitability of the spider horrors-that is to say poor decisions lead to the multiplication of spiders. A lot of the dialogue isn't particularly natural-sounding and Rack's roguishness veers into chauvinism when he drives Ashley's car in spite of her protestations. That said, the movie is genuinely scary at times. The failure of the townspeople to identify the spiders at times before they become even more predatory ensures that we will learn that the spiders will become more predatory. It's not brain surgery but it is very enjoyable and would I'm sure be really scary for people with a natural fear of spiders. This one has a slower-creeping ennui than Arachnophobia does but the spiders are more persistent and prevalent and the price they extract is higher.

microfame This film DID satisfy my current nostalgic craving for all things 70's, a decade when I, as a 2 to 12 year old, devoured TV-movies like this and "Ants" with abandon. Two things I feel compelled to mention...1) I love Shatner as Captain Kirk. Huge fan of Trek. But here, he comes off kind of oily and lecherous when he pours on the charm......odd. 2) I'm not a PETA activist, but I was really struck by how many spiders were stomped, run over, burned, boiled and mangled in this film. I'm sure, in the 70's, this would not have stood out to anyone, but in this age of special effects, where they'll show you in the extra features how they make a fake tarantula, and what brand tarter sauce they put in it for an effective "squishing" scene, it really jumped out at me. I felt kind of bad, to be honest....MANY spiders were hurt in the making of this film!Otherwise, a very good 70's "creature" film, best watched alongside "Day of the Animals" or "Frogs", for a fine double-feature.