Kingdom of the Spiders
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| Kingdom of the Spiders | |
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| Directed by | John "Bud" Cardos |
| Produced by | Henry Fownes, Igo Kantor, Jeffrey M. Sneller |
| Written by | Alan Caillou, Richard Robinson, Stephen Lodge (story), Jeffrey M. Sneller (story) |
| Starring | William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler |
| Music by | Dorsey Burnette |
| Cinematography | John Arthur Morrill |
| Editing by | Igo Kantor, Steven Zaillian |
| Distributed by | Dimension Films |
| Release date(s) | 1977 |
| Running time | 97 min |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Kingdom of the Spiders is a 1977 horror/science fiction film directed by John "Bud" Cardos and produced by Igo Kantor and Jeffrey M. Sneller. The screenplay is credited to Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou, from an original story by Jeffrey M. Sneller and Stephen Lodge. The film was released by Dimension Pictures (not to be confused with the distributor Dimension Films, which released the 1996 slasher film Scream.) It stars William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler, and Altovise Davis .
The film is one of the better-remembered entries in the "nature on the rampage" subgenre of sci-fi/horror films in the 1970s, due in part to its memorable scenes of people and animals being attacked by tarantulas; its availability on home video and airing on cable television, particularly on the USA Network; but primarily because of Shatner's starring role. For example, a book of trivia questions published by Starlog magazine referenced the film with the question, "In what movie did William Shatner co-star with some 5,000 live tarantulas?"
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[edit] Plot
Robert "Rack" Hansen, a veterinarian in rural Verde Valley, Arizona, United States, receives an urgent call from a local farmer, Walter Colby (Woody Strode). Colby is upset because his prize calf has become very sick for no apparent reason, and brings the animal to Hansen's laboratory. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterwards. Hansen tells Colby he cannot explain what made the animal so ill so quickly, but says he will take samples of the calf's blood to a university lab in Flagstaff in the hope that the scientists there can determine the cause of the illness.
A few days later, Diane Ashley (Bolling), an entomologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, arrives in nearby Camp Verde looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider venom, which Hansen finds very difficult to believe. Unconcerned with Hansen's skepticism, and uninterested in his romantic advances, Ashley tells him the problem is "very serious" and that she wishes to examine the animal's carcass and the area where it became sick.
The following morning Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm. Moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch (Altovise Davis), discovers their dog, Jake, is dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog's carcass and concludes that the dog, like the calf, died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is again incredulous about such a statement, until Colby says that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland.
Colby takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, a large mound of sand resembling an anthill, covered with hundreds of tarantulas. Ashley is very concerned, as the phenomena is unprecedented in the annals of science (Tarantulas are solitary creatures and cannibalistic—if they come across each other in nature, one will often attack the other and eat it).
That evening, over dinner, Ashley and Hansen discuss the highly unusual situation, and Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging together due to the heavy use of poisonous pesticide chemicals (particularly DDT), which is eradicating their natural food supply (i.e. insects). In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack larger animals in order to eat them. Her suspicions are heightened when she calls the local newspaper and learns that there has been a sudden increase in the number of classified ads listing missing pets; these animals are presumably being attacked and eaten by the tarantula army as well.
Later that night, Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm intent on destroying the army of spiders. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull stampedes out, rampaging because it is being attacked by tarantulas. Hansen is unable to save the animal from dying and Ashley becomes even more frightened. As she points out, if the spiders aren't afraid to take on a 1,500-pound bull, they likely won't be afraid to attack people. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, unbeknownst to Colby, the spiders have prepared for such an attack and escape out a rear tunnel. The following day, in retaliation, some of the tarantulas attack Colby in his truck, sending it over the side of a hill and killing him. Later that day, Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith (David McLean), examine the wreckage. Colby's body is found inside, encased in a cocoon of spider webs.
Ever more fearful that the spiders are preparing for an attack on the people of Camp Verde, Ashley is notified by her colleagues at the university that a sample of venom taken from one of the tarantulas from the hill is five times more toxic than normal. Hansen is then told by the sheriff that several more spider hills have been located on Colby's property.
Hansen, Ashley and the sheriff examine the hills along with the mayor of Camp Verde (Roy Engel), who orders the sheriff to spray the hills and the surrounding countryside with a highly toxic pesticide. Ashley protests, arguing that pesticide use is what caused the problem to begin with and that the town would be better off using birds and rats (tarantulas' enemies in nature) to eradicate them. The mayor dismisses her idea outright, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair. The local crop duster is enlisted to deliver the pesticide. Once he is airborne, however, he is also attacked by tarantulas, and crashes the plane before he can disperse the spray over the spider hills.
Ashley calls her colleagues and asks for help from the university, but is told no help can be sent for at least a couple of days. Meanwhile, the spiders begin their assault on the local residents, first attacking Birch Colby, and then Hansen's widowed sister-in-law, Terri (Marcy Lafferty), and her daughter, Linda (Natasha Ryan). Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Linda from the spiders, but Terri is already dead when he finds her.
Hansen and Ashley take Linda to the Washburn Lodge, where Ashley is staying. There they consult with the sheriff, who says he found Birch Colby dead and that the spiders are all over the countryside; he also can't get in touch with his deputy and the phones aren't working (the audience knows this is because the tarantulas have killed the town's lone switchboard operator). Smith says he is going to drive into town, while Hansen says he and the other survivors at the lodge are going to load up an RV and escape before it's too late. Before they can, however, the spiders begin an assault on the lodge, sneaking in through ventilation shafts and the fireplace. Hansen and the others barely manage to fend the creatures off and barricade themselves inside.
When Smith arrives in Camp Verde, he finds the town in a state of panic and chaos; the tarantulas are attacking and no one is safe. The town's streets are littered with dead bodies wrapped in cocoons of webbing. Smith tries to escape in his squad car, which is surrounded by panicking civilians. Finally, Smith is killed when a car (whose driver is being attacked by tarantulas) crashes into a support post under the town's water tower and the tower crushes the squad car.
Back at the lodge, Hansen and the other survivors, after a few more close calls with the spiders, completely close off the lodge from the outside world, including barricading the windows (which the spiders are attempting to break through with their combined weight). Then the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge's basement to change a blown fuse. He succeeds, but is then besieged by a group of spiders who break through one of the basement windows. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.
The film concludes early the following morning, with the survivors rigging up a radio receiver with batteries and listening eagerly for news reports of the bizaare attacks and how authorities are responding. To their surprise, however, the radio broadcast doesn't mention them, indicating that the outside world is oblivious to what has happened in Camp Verde. To see how bad the problem is, Hansen pries off the boards from one of the lodge's windows, and discovers that the entire building is encased in a giant web cocoon. The camera pulls back, and the audience sees that all of Camp Verde is encased in the cocoons as well.
[edit] Influences and criticism
Kingdom of the Spiders was one of several horror and science fiction films of the 1970s that reflected a growing sentiment of environmentalism in North America, such as Day of the Animals, Frogs and Silent Running. It also reflected a horror trend that suggested that mankind's worst enemy was not supernatural monsters, but creatures already present in nature, as seen in Jaws and the numerous copycat films that arrived in its wake, as well as the Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds.
A particular parallel to Jaws is that, in both films, local civic officials are more concerned with making money from tourism than with properly dealing with a very serious environmental problem. In both films, these decisions lead to unsuccessful attempts to eradicate the "monsters", ultimately with horrific consequences.
Many viewers also feel that the film borrows from George Romero's famous horror film Night of the Living Dead, in that both films feature a group of survivors banding together and barricading themselves in a building to withstand the onslaught of the villainous creatures. However, whereas almost all of Night of the Living Dead is set inside a house, the similar development in Kingdom of the Spiders occurs mainly in the final third of the film.
It is remembered as either one of the best or one of the worst of the "nature on the rampage" subgenre.
[edit] Production
Kantor told Fangoria magazine in 1998 that the film did indeed use 5,000 of the large, hairy spiders, though a number of rubber model spiders were also used during production. The live tarantulas were procurred by offering Mexican spider wranglers US$10 for each live tarantula they could find; this meant that $50,000 of the film's $500,000 budget went towards the purchase of spiders.
The large amount of tarantulas kept on-hand led to some unusual production difficulties. Not only did each spider have to be kept warm, but because of the creatures' cannibalistic tendencies, all 5,000 spiders had to be kept in separate containers. Additionally, tarantulas are usually shy around people, so fans and air tubes often had to be used to get the spiders to walk towards their "victims". Indeed, in a number of the scenes where the tarantulas are "attacking" people, it is obvious to the viewer that the spiders are merely moving around, usually away from their intended victims.
Contrary to popular belief, the venom of most tarantulas is not dangerous to humans, causing no more harm than a bee sting (unless the person is allergic to the venom). The worst injury most of the actors suffered was troublesome itching caused by the spiders shedding their hair (Tarantula fur has been used to make itching powder sold in joke and novelty stores).
Due to the film's low budget, most of the music used in the film (particularly the "startle cues") was taken from the logs of stock music used on suspense TV series. For example, most of the music used in the film during the scenes with the spiders can also be heard in notable episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "To Serve Man" and "The Invaders", as well as in at least one episode of The Fugitive. The country music songs heard on the radio in the movie, as well as over the opening and closing credits, were performed by country singer Dorsey Burnette.
Although Shatner and Bolling were ostensibly the "stars" of the film, many who have seen it (along with the producers) have said that the movie's "great performances" came from the extras (according to Kantor, usually friends and family of the crew) who were required to stay motionless (since they were supposed to be dead) as several live tarantulas crawled all over them.
[edit] Concerns over animal cruelty
Another common notion about the film is that it could not be made today due to the increased attention paid by animal rights organizations to film production. Indeed, many tarantulas died during production. This was partly because some of the creatures could not handle the constant changes in temperature and climate during the production process, but more because of the nature of the script. During the scenes where the survivors are trapped in the lodge, many spiders were stomped and crushed because the script called for the characters to kill them (as the spiders were supposed to be so dangerous to humans). Further, many more were crushed inadvertently during the scene where the creatures attack the town; several were stepped on and many others were run over by vehicles. In the scene where Gene Smith drives into town, the squad car's wheels clearly run over several spiders right in front of the camera.
With animal rights organizations now working with most film productions to ensure that animals are not harmed, a movie such as Kingdom of the Spiders would have to be made differently. During production of the similarly-themed 1990 horror comedy Arachnophobia, for example, when the script called for a spider to be killed on-screen, the crew would substitute a fake rubber spider model or the carcass of a spider that had died of natural causes. Another method would be to use CGI models.
[edit] Sequel?
Rumors have occasionally surfaced that a sequel to Kingdom of the Spiders was in production, however no such film has yet been made. Shatner told Fangoria in 1998 that he was working with Cannon Films in the late 1980s to produce a sequel, titled simply Kingdom of the Spiders 2. The actor claimed that he supplied the film's premise, which would have featured a man being tortured by his enemies, preying upon his intense fear of spiders, to get him to reveal a secret. Cannon went so far as to take out a full-page ad in Variety magazine announcing that Shatner would direct and star in the film, however the studio went bankrupt before production could begin.
More recently, the website for Port Hollywood, a film production company run by Kantor and Howard James Reekie, has posted a brief synopsis of the plot of another proposed sequel, to be titled Kingdom of the Spiders II, suggesting that the villainous spiders would this time be driven to attack humans due to secret government experiments involving extremely low frequency (or ELF). The synopsis also details Native American imagery that would factor into the plot.[1]
[edit] Trivia
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- At the time of filming, Shatner was married to Marcy Lafferty, the woman who plays his sister-in-law in the movie. The couple has since divorced. Altovise Davis, who plays Birch Colby, was the wife of Sammy Davis Jr.
- Woody Strode, who plays Walter Colby, was probably best known to film audiences for his role in the Lee Marvin/Burt Lancaster western film The Professionals. Sports historians know Strode as one of the first two African-American football players to break the National Football League's color barrier in the 1940s, when he joined the Los Angeles Rams.
- The film was nominated for the Best Horror Film award by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, but lost to The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, which starred a young Jodie Foster. At the awards ceremony (which was broadcast in TV syndication), Shatner performed one of his noted spoken-word versions of a pop song, in this case Elton John's "Rocket Man". Footage of this performance was featured in the Comedy Central Roast of Shatner. In addition, a straight-faced, deadpan imitation of this performance can be seen in the Family Guy episode "...And the Wiener Is", given by Stewie Griffin.
- The film is mentioned on an episode of the animated sitcom The Critic. In the episode, titled "From Chunk to Hunk", Jay Sherman reviews the new action movie starring "Jean Paul LePope", a thinly-veiled parody of Jean Claude Van Damme. Sherman remarks, "Jean Paul LePope is the worst actor I've ever seen... and I've seen all of William Shatner's movies, even Kingdom of the Spiders!"
- Two people involved in the film's production went on to win Oscars. Ve Neill, a makeup artist on the movie, won shared Oscars for her work on Mrs. Doubtfire and Ed Wood. Steven Zaillan, a co-editor on the film, won for his screenwriting of the Steven Spielberg film Schindler's List.
- Kantor hinted in his Fangoria interview that Arachnophobia, which Spielberg produced, bears several similarities to Kingdom of the Spiders. "I thought it was a copy", Kantor stated, "but you don't go and sue Spielberg!"
- According to Cardos, several actresses were considered for the role of Diane Ashley but were rejected when they showed apprehension towards handling live tarantulas. (Cardos kept two of the hairy spiders in an aquarium on his desk while meeting with actresses to gauge their reaction). Ironically, two such actresses, Barbara Hale and Donna Mills, appeared in other "killer spider" pictures: Hale in The Giant Spider Invasion and Mills in the made-for-TV Curse of the Black Widow, though in neither of these films did the aforementioned actresses work as closely with the spiders as they would have in Kingdom of the Spiders.
- In the Warren Zevon Song 'Life'll Kill Ya' Zevon says "its the Kingdom of the Spiders" in the opening verse referring to the movie.
