Yikes!
I have to admit, this film is hard to watch. Not because of the cinematography, direction, acting, or the story — it’s just creepy, plain and simple. Of course, that’s the intention of this horror film and as far as I’m concerned it does what it sets out to do very well.
The story is about a tremendous outbreak of spiders, tarantulas really, who overwhelm a small town in Arizona after the spiders’ food supply is destroyed by insecticides. With their natural food supply destroyed, the spiders decide to broaden their horizons. They first dispatch several livestock at a nearby farm, which is cause for alarm from entomologist Diane Ashley, played by Tiffany Bolling. She is later helped by William Shatner’s character, Rack Hansen, a veterinarian. When the mayor refuses to quarantine this farm due to the upcoming county fair, all hell breaks loose as the spiders begin to invade the town and attack the citizens. Within hours, people are dropping dead from spider attacks and suddenly everyone is in a fight for their life as the spiders attack in staggering numbers. Some try to run, others try to barricade themselves, but most fail to get away. The final scene from the film isn’t a pleasant one, but I remember it clearly when watching it as a kid. Thirty-plus years later, this film still has a potent chill factor that will have you shaking out your sheets and shoes for days.
As someone who has at least a little arachnophobia, this is a tough film to watch with dozens and hundreds of spiders on screen at once, falling from ceilings and hiding in all matter of places. Anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 spiders we utilized for this movie I would later learn in the extra features, all of which were the friendly, ‘tame’ orange-legged variety from the tarantula family. Tame or not, they’re intimidating. William Shatner didn’t have much of a problem dealing with the spiders he reveals in a new interview that is included on this disc.
Speaking of extra features, lets take a look at the complete list:
-Interview with William Shatner (16m) – This new interview has Shatner taking a seat and reminiscing about filming the Kingdom of the Spiders. He talks about how the film was on a tight budget, working with spiders, and other miscellaneous anecdotes. Well worth a watch.
-Jim Brockett: Spider Wrangler (12m) – Jim Brockett was the ‘spider wrangler’ when Kingdom was filmed. In this new feature, Jim sits down with an interviewer and shows him a variety of spiders, including the breed that was used for the film. Other spiders shown include cobalt tarantulas (dangerous and aggressive), pink-toed tarantulas, king baboon, and amazonian bird spiders. The amazonian bird spiders can get as large as a dinner plate and can easily live more than a decade. You’ll learn several facts about all of these spiders and it’s a very interesting feature.
-Audio Commentary with Director John “Bud” Cardos, Producer Igo Kantor, Spider Wrangler Jim Brockett, and Cinematographer John Morrill.
-Rare Behind the Scenes (17m) – This is sort of a weird, random collection of vintage footage taken during the filming of Kingdom. The first few minutes start of really slow with random, brief shots of random people, but later on you’ll see some of the stars of the film including Shatner.
-Interview with writer Steve Lodge (4m20s) – Steve talks about the film’s origin, influence from Jaws and The Birds (Hitchcock film), and how he at first despised spiders but came to like them. In fact, by the time filming was through, Steve took a spider home and kept him for seven years.
-Movie Posters – 11 posters, most of them just very slight variations on one another.
-Trailer
In terms of presentation, Kingdom of the Spiders on DVD looks and sounds fine. This is a widescreen presentation which the Good Times DVD release in 2003 did not have. In terms of quality, I didn’t find any major fault with the picture and sound.
To the summary…