Customer Reviews

Kingdom of the Spiders

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Cult 1977 low budget "nature gone haywire" film with Arizona veterinarian William Shatner ( that's about as far away from the bridge of the USS Enterprise as you can get ! ) firstly investigating unexplained livestock deaths. After Shatner takes bio samples from the dead animals and sends them off for analysis, then enter ice cool blonde entomologist Tiffany Boling to explain the animals are succumbing to massive doses of spider venom. Shattered farmer Woody Strode then shows Shatner and Boling a huge dirt mound seething with hairy, agressive tarantulas, and it soon becomes apparent that something is very wrong with the local spider population !

I first saw this film theatrically upon it's release back in 1978, and 25 + years later, when you stack it up against other "bugs on the rampage" films like "Frogs", "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" & "The Naked Jungle"....it holds up as one of the best. Sure, its as cheesy as a block of cheddar, and Shatner is a hammy actor, but it's a real guilty pleasure movie and seems to tick along quite well without getting bogged down with boring characterisations, or long winded explanations about why the spiders are now hunting much larger prey !

For my money, all the actors involved in this one deserve bravery awards for sharing the screen with hundreds and hundreds of genuine LIVE Mexican red knee tarantulas. On top of that most of the key cast members ( Shatner, Bolling, Strode, Dressler, Hughes & Lafferty ) get attacked and covered in these creepy arachnids. Nowadays, film makers would just cheat and use CGI effects, but back in low budget productions in 1977, they just tipped a bucket of real tarantulas on the actors and filmed the shot.....YECCH ! Well know Hollywood animal trainer's Lou Schumacher & Jim Brockett who have worked on similar projects such as "Day of the Animals", "Night of the Lepus", "Alligator" & "Dracula"s Dog" supplied & wrangled the spiders for KOTS, and I would have asked for a hotel room a long, long way away from Lou & Jims.....lest some of their "pets" went out for a stroll.

Although this release by Good Times DVD is only a mono soundtrack and a standard full frame presentation, the print is excellent and the transfer has been done very well. If you're a fan of this genre of horror movie, the "Kingdom Of The Spiders" definitely belongs in your DVD collection.

On January 19, 2010, Shout! Factory will unleash the Kingdom of the Spiders Special Edition on DVD. This is the 70's bug flick with William Star Trek Shatner as a vet fighting off spiders who are looking to take over an entire town. The spiders (tarantulas)are mad at the pesticides in their food and attack mankind..Very chilling. This is a chilling underrated movie that no bug horror film fan should miss. Directed by John Bud Carlos, this is far superior to movies like Ants! , Tarantulas,the Deadly Cargo, Empire of the Ants,etc. While there are no giant spiders (like Giant Spider Invasion) this movie contains hundreds(thousands maybe?)of nice size hairy spiders crawling & webbing their way toward mankind. This was released from Goodtimes full frame & uncut - now we can see it uncut and in its original aspect ratio...
Features include : all-new anamorphic widescreen transfer of the film, this Special Edition DVD release contains an all-new interview with William Shatner; an in-depth commentary featuring director John Bud Cardos, producer Igor Kantor, spider wrangler Jim Brockett and cinematographer John Morrill, moderated by HOSTEL producer Scott Spiegel and Lee Christian; rare behind-the-scenes footage; "Jim Brockett: Spider Wrangler" featurette; poster gallery and the original theatrical trailer.
This is the holy grail DVD release of Kingdom of the Spiders & is not to be missed..
Thank you Shout Factory !

When faced with the absolute magnificence one witnesses in this film, it's difficult to find the words needed to express such joy, let alone organize them in any manner. I feel a rush of sensations, all blindly driving my passions into a whirlwind of pleasure. Yes, the great William Shatner stars in this outing, and his impeccable acting alone is worthy of admission costs, but surprisingly, he is upstaged by two things: hordes of tarantulas stealing the scenes, and the most exquisitely cultivated male scream you will EVER encounter.

In one solitary scene, this movie lays waste to every other cinematic achievement in the history of motion pictures. The town's mayor has hired a crop-dusting pilot to spray deadly insecticide across the region infested with tarantulas, thus ensuring the annual local fair will proceed as scheduled, but our eight-legged protaganists counter with a deadly plan that transforms the pilot's cockpit into a tomb. In his final moments, this heroic, godlike vision of a man is swarmed by warmly embracing arachnids, and he unleashes the grandest of all screams. He continues to evoke his heavenly shrieking for the entire duration of his glorious exit from the realm of the living. I'm left speechless when attempting to describe the sheer beauty of this scene, but every creature walking this earth is but a mere speck of dust in comparison to the divine frequency unlocked by this man's diaphragm. This, without question, is the peak of cinematic mastery.

The rest of the movie is not without value either. The work of William Shatner is a configuration of talent that needs no introduction, for he is admired by the masses, worshipped as an artistic genius, and for his very existence we are all unworthy to serve as viewers. His role in this movie need not be discussed, for it goes without saying that his time onscreen is comparable to a sultan's ransom in fine jewels. Only a sheer fool will deny this. I am no fool.

I am also indebted to this film for the knowledge it has bestowed upon me. In the case that I, or my loved ones, were ever to be trapped in a ranch-styled hotel/restaurant blanketed by deadly tarantulas, we are now fully educated with the proper means of survival. First, and most importantly, if you're carrying a handgun, and a tarantula is biting your opposing hand, the best thing to do is shoot this hand off as gorily as possible. After evaluating this scenario countless times, I can see no better way to handle the situation. Second, if a ceiling vent appears to be blocked by tarantulas, the best thing to do is remove the vent while standing directly underneath it, so as to provide a landing space for the falling beasts, as this will better allow you to assess the situation, rather than allowing the spiders freedom to land elsewhere. The third and final lesson to be mentioned here is that if you're driving, and suddenly realise that tarantulas are crawling across your flesh, the quickest and most logical solution is to drive off the nearest cliff, and pray that flames will consume the scoundrels.

The quality of the dvd release is exceptional. There is footage present which I had not seen in previous releases, or even on television as a child. The picture quality is perfect, as well as the audio, and although some will complain about a lack of "extra" features, I am more than happy just being able to see the movies I grew up with in pristine shape. All other movies cower at the mention of this film, and it's impossible to deny this reality. Perfection is too light of a term to confine the overwhelming qualities of this magical cinematic experience, so rush out and enlighten yourself to the absolute grandeur of KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS.

The quality of this DVD is suprisingly good, considering it's from Goodtimes Video. Like another reviewer stated, too bad it's fullframe.

This is a entertaining movie. For the money, I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't get this. It's just a fun movie. There must be some reason this movie works and other movie with bigger budgets fail. I can just imagine the director gathering the cast and crew and telling them, look, I know we're not making Citizen Kane, but let's make a good movie. Something like that. The cast all give solid performances and seem to be having fun. A scene that is typical is when the sheriff tries to tell a woman that her husband is dead. He is unable with words, he grabs her in silence, hugs her, and the camera views them from the distance. I didn't expect that. Kinda moving.

"Kingdom of the Spiders" is a great 70's cult classic starring William Shatner!!! While not a perfect print of the film,it's fine just the same,actually very good for a Goodtimes Entertainment release!!! I was very happy finally to find it on DVD!!! Two thumbs up!!! Five stars!!! A+

Note to self: if I'm ever trapped in a house covered by millions of tarantulas and I hear a strange sound coming from an overhead air vent DO NOT stand directly beneath the vent and open it.

Local vet William Shatner is dumbfounded when he finds his small sleepy desert town under attack by a tidal wave of icky spiders. The invasion starts out slow enough but instead of doing anything productive ol' Shat prefers to mack on all the females and drink a little cold beer. The reality of the eight legged onslaught comes soon enough but by that time it's too late and everybody just runs around screaming a lot.

As far as Animals Gone Bad movies go I'd give this one 2 1/2 Giant Lepus out of 5. Shatner gives a reserved (and therefore disappointing) performance. And while the spiders themselves are impressive in their numbers they never really do anything but walk around really slow, but the biggest disappointment is the time wasted with the slow build up and then right when things look like they're going to liven up the [...]in' movie just ends! What the [...]?! That's horse[...]!

Overall it's a fun watch and we got some good laughs out of it, but it leaves a lot to be desired. The Goodtimes DVD has an acceptable picture, but it's in Full Screen (boo!) and there are zero [...]ing extras (double-[...]in'-boo!!).

First, I have to admit that it took me about three evenings to get through this because I kept falling asleep. It's good trash, but not gripping trash unless you have a thing about spiders--I imagine it would keep you awake just fine in that case.

The acting was lame enough to be thoroughly enjoyable, the predictability of the plot was reassuring (principled veterinarian cautions town officials, who are planning a county fair, that they should hold off on the fair because the spiders are coming, officials don't, officials die), the spiders were cool, and the supposedly horrifying bits were just horrifying enough.

I live in Arizona and let me tell you that you would be hard-pressed to lose a foot race with a tarantula, even though you have only two feet and they have eight. They just aren't speedy. And any bovine that allowed itself to get covered with them could hardly have been very healthy to start. Oh well. The facts didn't get in the way of my willing suspension of disbelief in this case.

So...watch it if you like the Animals vs. Man genre of sci fi...it's fun and the ending is different.

I saw this on the boob tube when I was a little tot and never forgot it; especially the ending. Wow. I loved it. Never forgot the last scene. Not what I expected.

I will not spoil the ending like other reviewers. (You know who you are, and you should warn folks by typing SPOILER ALERT or something similiar before screwing it up for other people. It's a shame that it doesn't occur to your little brain that someone may not have seen the movie and doesn't want to know how it ends.)

That being said, this is one of those silly horror movies to throw on when you feel like a campy/creepy 1970's frightfest ...with a memorable final shot.

I grew up in the 70's/80's, and loved those spooky late night b-movie shows on TV. It's great that these old 'chiller theater' titles are being released on disc. There should be a TV channel that plays these old films again, like a Horror Network. But then we'd have commercials, so dvd is definitely preferred.

Captain Kirk takes on the Arachnid Empire in this horribly great 70s horror flick. If you can ignore the bad acting, the cheesy effects, and last but not least, the fact that tarantulas don't spin webs, it's worth a look. William Shatner gives a much better performance than he did in most of his classic series, and watching spiders crawl over corpses is always creepy. Low budget classic is well worth a look.

I have been a fan of this movie for a long time so I'm happy it finally came out on DVD. Needless to say, I have this DVD and it is probably one of my favorite movies. It was made in 1977 and stars William Shatner and Tiffany Bolling. The basic plot is that tarantulas take over a small town, forcing the survivors to lock themselves into a hotel, hoping that no spiders get in. What's not to like? It's B-rated movies at it's best! Not to mention it stars good ol' Captain Kirk, and I'm a Trek fan.

I really do enjoy the movie. It's really amazing. Unlike spider movies made today, these are real spiders and really do give me the heeby jeebies. There is one scene that really sticks out in my mind and that's when the little girl that is hiding in the hotel with the rest of the survivors screams and you see that her entire bed is covered in spiders and she it trying hard not to be bitten. This movie is awesome.

It has a really good story with excellent effects, the entire town is taken over by spiders with people dead in the streets with spider webs covering them. And the ending is great, one of the best endings to a spider film ever! Overall, I can't say it enough, this film is fantastic.