Kingdom Of The Spiders

[Hellbilly]

There is something about those John "Bud" Cardos flicks I enjoy.
Lodges, cowboy hats, cattle, friendly people and C&W tunes are usually Bud's trademarks and Kingdom Of The Spiders doesn't make an exception. Got all the ingredients. We even get puffy faced William Shatner (obviously sucking in his belly) thrown in made up as a cowboy cracking six-packs of beer. Shatner plays Dr. Robert "Rack" Hansen, a small town vet somewhere's in Arizona. A friendly fellow taking care of his dead brother's wife and kid.

"I may be a lot of things but I'm NOT my brother"

"Rack" says that in disgust after wrestling his sexy sister-in-law down to the ground and then pushing her away before they can share an intimate moment. There's a moment of "Star Trek" however when "Rack" suddenly receives a message on his beeper. But his beeper doesn't beep. It has a female voice talking to him. And nope, it is not Lt. Nyota Uhura. Did they already had those kind of gizmo's back in 1977? Just curious because that thing did not look like a walkie talkie. Anyway "Rack" gets called to the "Colby Ranch" because a few cattle died an unnatural death. "Rack" takes blood samples and sends them in for testing. Soon enough some blonde research lady pops up with the blood test results looking for Hansen screaming "deadly spider venom!".

Meanwhile ... even more dead cows, dogs and people. Mysterious spider-hills appear and soon the town is infested by millions of Tarantulas ...

**************************************************

After a slow start Kingdom picks up and -surprise- even managed to gross me out a bit. Sure it's cheesy (we get an explanation why "Rack" is called "Rack" plus you got to love it when some 60 year old pesticide dude in a plane screams in fright like a woman) but those spiders are ... ugh! My jaw hit the table when in one scene William Shatner came stumbling out of the basement with yucky bite marks on his face somewhat caught me off guard there. Ending was not bad as well. Cool big panic scene with people running around covered in spider webs etc.

Solid Drive-In cheese worth checking out.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00006I042.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

GoodTime's DVD can be found for under $10 bucks, barebones and full screen (audio: mono). Transfer ain't the greatest though, grain, dirt and not very sharp. Audio is kinda weak, there's even some noise distortion near the end.

There's also a German R2 Widescreen (1.85:1) release with English audio and Theatrical Trailer:

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B0001FBC2O.03.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[Zodiac-Mindwarp]

Another good review Hellbilly!

Seen this out at Best Buy for something like $7.99 a couple of times, but I was always buying too much other stuff each time that I saw it.

I have never actually watched the movie, but it sounds like the kind of cheap cheesy 70's flick that I usually get a kick out of. Maybe one of these times I will find it on the shelf before I already have more DVD's in hand than I can afford.

[dwatts]

I love reviews where someone slags the movie and ends with "Fun flick worth checking out. ". Well done!

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[Hellbilly]

Originally posted by Zodiac-Mindwarp

I have never actually watched the movie, but it sounds like the kind of cheap cheesy 70's flick that I usually get a kick out of.
Yup, I had a good time watching this. Recommended if cheeze is you're kinda thing.

Originally posted by dwatts
I love reviews where someone slags the movie and ends with "Fun flick worth checking out. ". Well done!
Why thank you sir :)

[scarychick]

Oh, yes, I remember this movie! :)

I remember watching it on tv one summer night back in the early eighties. When I went to bed, I noticed a spider crawling on the ceiling and I screamed to high heaven! :eek1: :cry: Needless to say my family wasn't too happy with me that night! :rolleyes:

Hmm... maybe that's why I'm deathy afraid of spiders now! :nervous:

~M :)

[drown021]

I bought this movie.As someone stated above,I watched this late at night when I was a kid and thought it was pretty cool.I was so happy to see it on dvd recently that I scooped it up right away.I havent watched it yet but I know that it will always be there.The part that really freaked me out the most was the very end.Maybe that has something to do with my fear of spiders.Thanks for the review.

[X-human]

Just checked this out, and I have to say that the mediocre core of the movie with a side order of cheese really lulls you into a kind of self assured smugness until you get to the final act and it wipes that smugness right from your face. Seeing the towns people out of control with spiders all around like that was really disturbing, course in my mind there's nothing more frightening then large masses in panic.

I'm very glad I picked this up.

[hellraiser40]

there's also a Dutch release with anamorphic widescreen and nice quality!

[SaviniFan]

there's also a Dutch release with anamorphic widescreen and nice quality!

Link please.

[MorallySound]

This is a fun flick!

[satans-sadists]

Great movie with a wonderfully bleak ending. Gotta dig that campy country western theme song. :) As much as I love The Devil's Rain, I think this was Shatner's best horror film. There's a cool interview with director John "Bud" Cardos on The Dark dvd in which he talks for a while about Kingdom of the Spiders and shares some interesting stories.

[fceurich39]

very fun movie it is just too bad another dvd company wont release this with some special features

[Katatonia]

There's a cool interview with director John "Bud" Cardos on The Dark dvd in which he talks for a while about Kingdom of the Spiders and shares some interesting stories.

Agreed, a very good interview on that disc!

[MrKateB]

I think this is a movie that deserves a proper release...I remember seeing this on tv when it was first shown after coming out in theaters a year or so prior, and it looked pretty good...

The DVD, while not terrible, makes it look somewhat washed out and more cheesy than it really is.

Considering that everyone in this movie has an interesting background in cinema & radio, the director has done several well-known movies, and what kinds of experiences they must have had filming, I'm sure there would be plenty of material to justify a special release..

Maybe some day someone will pick it up and do it right, but for now, I'm just glad it was released at all, and as I said, the version we got in the states isn't terrible, just disappointing.

My favorite scene is where the little troll woman dressed in Garanimals who came from the winnebago is all frightened, and then William Shatner singles her out to come stand by the ladder, directly under the grate he is about to unscrew..

He takes the grate off, and dozens of big nasty spiders fall onto her head.

It was almost as if he did it on purpose.

[hellraiser40]

Link please.

http://www.paradiso.be/index.php?st=retail&label=greencow&when=archive&key=KOTS

[VideoViolence]

This is prime for a special editon dvd! I'm sure the director and William Shatner would both do interviews and/or commentary at least. I remember Shatner saying Cannon Pictures was going to do a Kingdom Of The Spiders 2 and even took out an ad in Variety about it. And then they went under soon after.