Kingdom Of The Spiders (1977/Shout! Factory DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Film: C+

 

 

So many films in the already active natural disaster film wave suddenly wanted to have the success of Jaws (1975) that it changed and helped to kill that wave, with very few films really being that good.  Among the many that were amusing duds, some of them still had amusing moments and one of them is John “Bud” Cardos’ 1977 indie Horror fest Kingdom Of The Spiders, which boasted a surprisingly large promotional campaign and William Shatner as a veterinarian who is among the first to realize something is wrong.

 

When entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) meets him, they quickly come to the same conclusions, but can they convince the town disaster in imminent before it is too late?  Especially before that all-important town fair which brings in much-needed money annually?

 

Four people wrote this somewhat formulaic script including Alan Caillou (a longtime genre writer and character actor who also appears in the film), Stephen Lodge, Richard Robinson (who did better with Joe Dante’s Piranha a year later) and Jeffrey M. Sneller, who is usually a film producer.  The rest of the cast are a highlight that make this hold up better than it would otherwise, including Woody Strode, Natasha Ryan, Roy Engel, David McLean and Altovise Davis.

 

Of course, actual spiders were used throughout, especially in this not-only pre-digital era, but before movie make-up and model work had been perfected.  As a result, some were killed and others outright assaulted; something you could not legally do now.  It is a low-point of the film, but the film is uneven to begin with and was never the best of its kind, yet enough works to reward the curious who want to give it a look.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little soft but has some good moments of definition and color, but some work needs to be done of the original camera materials, though the DVD might be limiting some good qualities of the work by Director of Photography John Arthur Morrill (The Exiles, A Boy & His Dog; both reviewed elsewhere on this site) and is not bad for its age just the same.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is also not bad for its age despite background hiss and distortion.

 

Extras include an amusing new Shatner on-camera interview, commentary by Cardos with Morrill, Producer Igo Kantor, Spider Wrangler Jim Brockett and others, Poster Gallery, rare behind-the-scenes footage and the Original Theatrical Trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo