KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS (1977)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS, one of a handful of films directed by actor/stuntman John "Bud" Cardos, is just another eco-horror film with a strong structural similarity to JAWS.

Cattle and other animals begin dying in Verde Valley, Arizona, causing local veterinarian Rack Hansen (William Shatner) considerable stress. After he sends samples of a dead calf's blood to the local university, the university sends arachnologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) to investigate. She finds that the animals were slain by extraordinary quantities of tarantula venom, far more than ordinary spiders can normally generate.

However, there's no literal science-fictional explanation for the behavior of the local tarantula population. Human pesticides designed to protect crops have eliminated most of the normal creatures on which the spiders feed, and so the arachnids began preying on larger targets-- though in truth one never sees them eating their victims, probably because that would have presented too many problems for the crew's "spider wranglers."

Rack and Diane, despite some initial animosity, become allies in trying to convince local authorities to counter the tarantulas with natural predators. Instead, the mayor orders the use of extreme poisons against the spiders. However, the spiders seem to have acquired the military organization of ants, for when the poison-laden crop duster takes off, several of the arachnids stow away and cause the pilot to crash the plane.

Cardos keeps the film moving with a steady stream of incidents and some decent performances by Shatner, Bolling, and Woody Strode. (Shatner even looks like he may still have some or all of his original hair.) The spiders step up their attacks on the human community, leading to many creepy-crawly scenes as they penetrate houses and attack people. Due to the fact that real tarantulas are difficult to wrangle, some scenes depend greatly on the actors selling the illusion of being spider-attacked. The climax, in which the tarantulas prove that they can also spin webs in much greater profusion than any real animals, is evocative despite making no scientific sense.

Rack is the only character given a character subplot, though it doesn't come to much. His brother died in Vietnam, though both the brother's wife Terry (Marcy Lafferty) and his little daughter Linda still live in Verde Valley. Both Rack and Terry have a minor thing for one another, but the shadow of the late sibling keeps them apart-- and then the conflict is never resolved, after the spiders kill Terry. I guess that bit of drama was just present to give Shatner a little extra business to do, but it proves distracting instead.