Kingdom of the Spiders

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Robert "Rack" Hansen, a veterinarian in rural Verde Valley, Arizona, receives an urgent call from a local farmer, Walter Colby. Colby is upset because his prize calf has become sick for no apparent reason, and the animal is brought in to Hansen's laboratory. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterward. Hansen tells Colby he cannot explain what made the animal so ill so quickly, but takes samples of the calf's blood to a university lab in Flagstaff.
A few days later, Diane Ashley, an arachnologist, arrives looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider venom, which Hansen greets with skepticism and disbelief. Undaunted, Ashley tells him the problem is serious and that she wishes to examine the animal's carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm; and moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch, discovers their dog is also mysteriously dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog's carcass and concludes that like the calf, it died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is incredulous, until Colby states that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland. He takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, which is covered with tarantulas. Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging together due to the heavy use of pesticides, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack and eat larger animals--and humans.
Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm to burn the spider hill. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull erratically stampedes out, also being attacked by tarantulas. Ashley notes that the spiders likely will not be afraid to attack people either. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, many of the spiders escape out of a distant tunnel. Colby is attacked by a group of tarantulas as he is driving along in his truck the next day, sending the truck over the side of a hill and killing him. Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith, examine the wreckage. Colby's body is found encased in a cocoon of spider webs. Meanwhile, Ashley is notified by her colleagues that a sample of venom from one of the spiders is five times more toxic than normal. Hansen is then told by the sheriff that several more spider hills have been located on Colby's property.
Hansen, Ashley and the sheriff examine the hills along with the mayor of Camp Verde, who orders the sheriff to spray the hills and the surrounding countryside with a pesticide. Ashley protests, arguing that pesticide use is what caused the problem to begin with and that the town would be better off using birds and rats (tarantulas' enemies in nature) to eradicate them. The mayor dismisses the idea, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair. A crop duster is enlisted to spray the pesticide; but once airborne, the pilot is attacked by tarantulas, causing him to crash the plane and perish before he can successfully disperse the spray.
The spiders eventually begin their assault on the local residents, killing Birch and Hansen's sister-in-law, Terri. Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Terri's daughter, Linda, from the spiders. Hansen, Ashley, and Linda then take refuge in the Washburn Lodge. They consult with the sheriff, who tells them that the spiders are everywhere and Camp Verde is cut off from the outside world. Officer Smith drives into town, while Hansen and the other survivors at the lodge plan to load up an RV and escape. However, the spiders have them trapped in the lodge, and they barricade themselves inside. Meanwhile, Smith arrives at Camp Verde and finds the town in screaming chaos, as it is under siege by the spiders. Smith tries to escape, but is killed when another car crashes into a support post under the town's water tower, causing it to fall on his vehicle and crushing him to death.
Back at the lodge, the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge's basement to change a blown fuse. He succeeds, but is besieged by spiders who break through one of the basement windows by using their combined weight. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.
The film concludes the next day, with the survivors rigging up a radio receiver and listening for news of the attacks. To their surprise, the radio broadcast doesn't mention the attacks, indicating that the outside world is oblivious to what has happened. Hansen pries off the boards from one of the lodge's windows, and discovers that the entire building is encased in a giant web cocoon. In the final scene, the camera pulls back to reveal the entire town of Camp Verde encased in cocoons as well.

Tags: tragedy, horror

Review:
"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.
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.
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.
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.
Not only did it make my arachnophobia much worse, it was my favorite movie for several years!"Kingdom of the Spiders" was one of the first horror movies to feature normal everyday spiders as villains (earlier films such as "Tarantula" and "Earth vs.
The cast of "Kingdom" is sort of a potpourri of 70s drive-in movie names: Tiffany Bolling of "Wicked Wicked" and "The Candy Snatchers"; William Shatner of countless low-grade B-movies and "Star Trek"; Lieux Dressler of "Truck Stop Women"; Woody Strode of "Black Jesus"; and Altovise Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr.'s wife who attempted a movie career.
Both deliver the goods to their audiences (you will be looking under chairs and between blankets weeks after seeing this movie!), the only difference being the budget and the professional cast of "Arachnophobia"."Kingdom of the Spiders" isn't too hard to find and if you do find it to rent or buy, do so!
Charismatic actor and professional cool dude William Shatner stars as the veterinarian of a little Arizona town that developed a BIG spider problem on short notice!
Director John "Bud" Cardos, previously an actor is dreadful drive-in horror movies himself, clearly had great fun making this good old-fashioned "Don't-mess-with-Mother-Nature" flick, so why shouldn't you!
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.
But while not quite as tongue-in-cheek as his long-time small screen persona, Shatner does offer a few well timed laughs that lighten up proceedings, just when things seem to be getting a bit heavy.An equally likable supporting cast of relaxed characters (notably MacLean and Dressler) band together to combat the nemesis at the local bed and breakfast, but it seems the end is nigh for mankind.
Director Cardos handles the subject matter well, bracing the audience for mild shocks and timing the suspense with aplomb.The dialogue incorporates the usual scientific gabble, with the lusty entomologist Bolling (momentarily disrobed, but alas, just a feint glimpse) hypothesizing on the cause of cattle deaths from apparent spider bites, and there's plenty of cheerful banter (some of which sounds improvised) between her and Shatner's rugged, gregarious vet in between grim discoveries.
Also, I remember as a whole, it freaked me completely out.Sure, I had and still have arachnophobia, so since most horror movies, especially the haunted house/ghost stories of late, don't scare me, I'll always turn to these (Eight Legged Freaks, for example) no matter how preposterous just to get a little (or a lot) frightened.
In comes a potential love interest all the way from Tempe (in reality, it would take probably 2-3 hours max to make the trip, but they make it seem like it's a trek (yeah, I had to toss a Shatner-term in) from NYC.) She's concerned about the 5x lethal venom from spiders.Throw in some anti-pesticide speeches, and more animals die.
I loved the final shot.Not for everyone, Kingdom of the Spiders is still recommended for those wanting a B-Movie scare out of those eight legged freaks.
In reality, it's a helluva lot better than most spider-ambush movies made since.(Side Note: I love the Stolen-Star Wars poster's tagline above a tortured man with a torch: "A Wild Science Fiction Nightmare." Let's dissect all that.
Kingdom of the Spiders takes obvious influence from classic creature features such as The Birds, in that it puts its focus on a small group of people amidst nature's attack.
A couple of days later, the scientist Dr. Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) comes to the location and tells that the animal was bitten by spiders and killed by a massive dose of their venom.
Further, they find that the town is surrounded an enormous number of killer spiders and there is no way to run."Kingdom of the Spiders" is a horror trash-cult movie, with William Shatner in the lead role in a period that he was worshiped as Captain James T.
Having made the latter a woman (and sexy B-movie starlet Tiffany Bolling at that!), it comes as no surprise at all that romance soon blossoms between her and town doctor Shatner (after overcoming the equally predictable initial animosity).
What makes it silly is the fact that, as in classic zombie movies, the spiders move so slowly that you could have a picnic in the middle of the climax of the film without getting one on you.
There is not a single scene that you can't predict in advance.The pluses are Shatner (of course), the opening sequence filmed in spider-cam while a cow bell tolls ominously, and the on-and-off death scene of one man who screams like a schoolgirl for five solid minutes.
this is my fav movie of all times - somehow the slow country music combined with the realistic horror scenes and quickly-dying small town are done in a macabre fashion and truly get u worrying the movie was very well done for one of this era, and the whole film is worth watching 4 the ending of course many people wud find the whole concept a little far-out and William Shatners starring role doesn't exactly add 2 the seriousness of the situation, but if u like spider movies, in particular arachnophobia, this is the ORIGINAL freaky spider movie - u don't get much more realistic and freaky my fav scene was wen linda was on the swing out the back - now THAT is a trippy and truly horrifying scene.
William Shatner obviously having fun in the movie, not only getting smarmy over Tiffany Bolling, but also with his current wife at the time who also co-stars.
Davis has the classic line "Ain't no damn spiders that're gonna chase me off  my property."  The best part of the film is actual tarantulas are used, hundreds of them.
He just doesn't seem like the sort of fella to be living in Arizona.The most annoying things about the film are not the spiders but a character named Diane Ashley.
Somehow the spiders have begun to swarm (tarantulas are NOT sociable in real life and are loners) and their natural venom is now five times stronger than normal--making them even more dangerous than bunnies (NIGHT OF THE LEPUS) or ants (EMPIRE OF THE ANTS) or frogs (FROGS!)!!While this isn't a completely terrible film, because it is a bit silly and there are countless similar films (many more than are listed above), it's quite unnecessary for anyone other than devoted Shatner fans to watch the film.
Overall, a silly trifle that obviously didn't seriously harm Shatner's career...though you never have heard about Tiffany Bolling since this film, have you?!By the way, an awful lot of tarantulas are stomped on and smooshed in the movie.
This also makes the panic scene later in the film (where people run back and forth screaming as the spiders crawl around slowly) more laughable than frightening.
The town doctor (William Shatner) and an entomologist (Tiffany Bolling) discover spiders are attacking and killing animals...and people might be next.
Movies may have startled me or surprised me, but nothing can compare to the sheer horror that "Kingdom of the Spiders" subjected me to, and the film remains held in awe in the family to this day.Sure, we laugh at it now.
Shatner is a veterinarian who has discovered that one of Woody Strode's calves was killed and the lab results which entomologist Tiffany Bolling brings in shows it was an incredible amount of spider venom.In van she's one of the scientist who has warned against the overuse of DDT which has killed the spider's natural food supply.
KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977) **½ William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler.
In yet another one of those don't-mess-with-Mother-Nature science-fiction flicks, William Shatner plays a small-town veterinarian who, along with a university researcher (Bolling), tries to figure out why thousands of tarantulas have suddenly descended upon Verde Valley, Arizona.
I found "Kingdom of the Spiders" by sheer luck while browsing through the horror section, and I do like creature features, so of course I gave this movie a go.
Actually, there was a lack of feeling a sense of danger from the spiders and their nest, especially since tarantulas are not all that deadly."Kingdom of the Spiders" actually had a rather good ensemble of acting talents, and it was sort of fun and interesting to watch William Shatner in a movie such as this.
Despite its shortcomings though, this B movie is a good little flick and one of the best horror films of the 70s.
The absolute best nature runs amok flick to come out of the 70's, this little gem of a flick starts out rather slowly but builds up to an incredible tarantula invasion that has yet to be equaled, and boasts one of the greatest endings to any movie I have ever seen.
They also seem to have become more intelligent, which isn't good news for the good folk of Camp Verde, Arizona, who the spiders have decided to add to their larder.With a few thousand real tarantulas at his disposal, and a game cast more than willing to have the horrible creatures crawling all over their bodies for the sake of their art, director John 'Bud' Cardos delivers a B-movie horror guaranteed to have anyone with even the slightest case of arachnophobia squirming uncontrollably in their seats.
Even if the idea of a dozen big-ass hairy spiders in the face doesn't faze you, there are plenty of other reasons to dig this fun drive-in flick: William 'Captain Kirk' Shatner as the hero, gorgeous Tiffany Bolling as his entomologist love interest, and cult actor Woody Strode as the token black guy guaranteed a horrible death; a hilarious scene in which the pilot of a biplane screams like a girl while tarantulas crawl on his head; a crazed steer brought to its knees by the spiders; and the entire town running amok as the creepy crawlies attack.All that and a truly memorable final image make this a hugely enjoyable piece of drive-in entertainment..
William Shatner("Star Trek") stars as a veterinarian in a desert community who, while investigating a series of mysterious animal deaths, and after he is helped by another expert(Tiffany Bolling) discovers to their horror that hordes of tarantulas are massing in the desert, and are about to strike back at humans, just in time for the annual town festival...Story is old hat by now, but is expertly directed by John "Bud" Cardos, well-written and acted, with an effective music score(with cues taken from "The Twilight Zone") and a memorable ending that wraps things up, though leaves room for a possible sequel which hasn't happened yet....
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.
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..
William Shatner stars as 'Rack' Hansen, the local vet who is at a loss for what's causing the trouble, when an entomologist, who seems to have a hang-up about being taken seriously, because she's an attractive woman, comes to report the livestock was killed from spider venom, the real fun begins.
There are so many spiders in this movie, crawling on peoples heads and bodies, I still don't know how I managed to watch it till the ending.
Good Spider Fun. Investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of farm animals, vet Rack Hansen (William Shatner) discovers that his town lies in the path of hoards of migrating tarantulas.
Before he can take action, the streets are overrun by killer spiders, trapping a small group of towns folk in a remote hotel.I am more than a little shocked this is not a Roger Corman film, as it seems to have been greatly inspired by his movies.
Classic B movie fodder with Hammy acting and dialogue (Courtesy of William Shatner, Woody Strode and Tiffany Bolling) and loads of 8 legged crittersWell worth a watch!!!.
"Kingdom of the Spiders" is a better-than-expected killer spider film.**SPOILERS**Investigating a sick cow, veterinarian Rack Hanson, (William Shatner) discovers something strange with the creature that eventually results in Diane Ashley, (Tiffany Bolling) a professional entomologist, to visit saying that it was a spider bite.
From the open-area shots that really give it the out-doors feel to the use of actual spiders seen crawling over everything and even to the dangerous look of the attacks in here, there's no mistaking this one as coming from anywhere but that time-frame, and it really works to the film's advantage.
Its a cult classic killer spider movie, rivalling films like Arachnophobia and Tarantula.
The plot involves hordes of tarantulas besieging a small Arizona town (curious note: Arizona has been besieged in "Monolith Monsters," "Tarantula" and "Eight-Legged Freaks" as well) when Man's spraying of DDT wipes out their normal food supply.The film begins slowly with mysterious animal deaths including a prized calf owned by local farmer Walter Colby (Woody Strode).
Kingdom of the Spiders does well what it sets out to do, and does it in a fun B-movie tradition.Veterinarian Shatner, along with a few other people, fend off millions of tarantulas in a secluded Hotel building after spiders have literally taken control in a small Arizona town and are killing off it's residents.The whole idea behind the spiders turning so aggressive is actually not a bad one.
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!
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..
The effects are over the top, the story is predictable and the characters are plain/shallow.This is not the case with this movie however.Kingdom of the Spiders has a great cast.
Throw in another young innocent killed in Nam to get the girl to like Shatner and some of the dumbest death scenes I have ever seen and you have the "cult classic" Kingdom of the Spiders.
But there is a likable quality in Kingdom of the Spiders, William Shatner does a great job playing Rack.
So, if you like William Shatner or love spider movies, then watch Kingdom of the Spiders.
Kingdom of the Spiders is set in Arizona where local vet Dr. Robert 'Rack' Hansen (William Shatner) gets a call from a rancher named Walter Colby (Woody Strode) who has a problem with one of his livestock, Rack gets there too late & the animal dies.
Everyone else does OK but Shatner steals the show.Kingdom of the Spiders is a decent film, it's a lot of fun once it gets going unfortunately it takes a while to, get going that is.
William Shatner is Rack Hansen, a small town veterinarian investigating the mysterious deaths of local farm animals.
Kingdom of the Spiders might have been good for a laugh or two had Shatner been allowed to chew the scenery as he's so good at doing.As for the movie, it's pretty standard 70s Man Vs. Nature type stuff.
William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling and Marcy Lafferty star in this 1977 sci-fi/horror film.
We see how veterinarian William Shatner and scientist Tiffany Bolling respond, along with other citizens, when the spiders go on a rampage, attacking their prey, cocooning victims for later consumption.Apocalyptic theme of "what happens when nature turns on mankind", with the humans moving down on the food chain, is utilized to perfection by director John 'Bud' Cardos in this terrific creature feature.
William Shatner stars in this Nature gone bad Sci-Fi / Thriller about an Arizona Town being overrun by groups of Tarantulas.