Kingdom of the Spiders
Encyclopedia
Kingdom of the Spiders is a 1977 horror science-fiction film directed by John "Bud" Cardos
and produced by Igo Kantor, Jeffrey M. Sneller and James Bond Johnson. 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 science fiction/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.
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 sick for no apparent reason, and brings the animal to Hansen's laboratory. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterward. Hansen tells Colby he cannot explain what made the animal so ill so quickly, but takes samples of the calf's blood to a university lab in Flagstaff
.
A few days later, Diane Ashley (Bolling), an arachnologist, arrives looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider
venom
, which Hansen greets with skepticism. Undaunted, Ashley tells him the problem is serious and that she wishes to examine the animal's carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm. Moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch (Altovise Davis
), discovers their dog is dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog's carcass and concludes that like the calf, it died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is incredulous, until Colby states that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland. He takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, which is covered with tarantulas. Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging together due to the heavy use of pesticide
s, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack and eat larger animals.
Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull
stampedes out; it is being attacked by tarantulas. Ashley notes that the spiders likely will not be afraid to attack people either. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, many of the spiders escape out of a tunnel. Colby is attacked in his truck the next day, sending it over the side of a hill and killing him. Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith (David McLean
), examine the wreckage. Colby's body is found encased in a cocoon of spider webs. Meanwhile, Ashley is notified by her colleagues that a sample of venom from one of the spiders 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 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 the idea, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair
. A crop duster is enlisted to spray the pesticide. Once the pilot is airborne, he is attacked by tarantulas, and crashes the plane before he can disperse the spray.
The spiders begin their assault on the local residents, killing Birch and Hansen's sister-in-law, Terri (Marcy Lafferty). Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Terri's daughter, Linda from the spiders. Hansen and Ashley take Linda to the Washburn Lodge. They consult with the sheriff, who tells them that the spiders are everywhere and Camp Verde cut off from the outside world. Smith drives into town, while Hansen and the other survivors at the lodge plan to load up an RV and escape. However, the spiders trap them in the lodge, and they barricade themselves inside. Meanwhile, Smith arrives in Camp Verde and finds the town under siege by the spiders. Smith tries to escape, but is killed when another car crashes into a support post under the town's water tower, causing it to fall on his vehicle.
Back at the lodge, the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge's basement to change a blown fuse
. He succeeds, but is besieged by spiders who break through one of the basement windows, by using their combined weight. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.
The film concludes the next day, with the survivors rigging up a radio receiver and listening for news of the attacks. To their surprise, the radio broadcast doesn't mention the attacks, indicating that the outside world is oblivious to what has happened. 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 all of Camp Verde is encased in cocoons as well.
in North America, such as Day of the Animals
, Night of the Lepus
, Killer Bees
, 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 A. 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.
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.
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.
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.
released Kingdom of The Spiders: Special Edition on DVD in early 2010.
John Cardos
-Filmography:* Kingdom of the Spiders * The Dark * Mutant * Outlaw of Gor * Act of Piracy -External links:...
and produced by Igo Kantor, Jeffrey M. Sneller and James Bond Johnson. The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
is credited to Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou
Alan Caillou
Alan Caillou was the nom de plume of Alan Samuel Lyle-Smythe M.B.E., M.C. , an author, actor, screenwriter, soldier, policeman and professional hunter.-Biography:...
, from an original story by Jeffrey M. Sneller and Stephen Lodge
Stephen Lodge (author)
Stephen Lodge is an American author, television screenwriter and actor; also a former costumer and stuntman to the industry. He was born on 6 February 1943 in the Long Beach area of California, United States.-Early and professional life:...
. The film was released by Dimension Pictures (not to be confused with the distributor Dimension Films
Dimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
, which released the 1996 slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
Scream
Scream (film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The film stars Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Drew Barrymore, and David Arquette...
.) It stars William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode
Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
, Lieux Dressler, and Altovise Davis
Altovise Davis
Altovise Davis was an American entertainer, best known as Sammy Davis, Jr.'s third wife.Born in Charlotte, North Carolina as Altovise Joanne Gore, she was raised in Brooklyn, New York and worked during the 1960s as a chorus-line dancer in various musical shows both in London and on Broadway.Her...
.
The film is one of the better-remembered entries in the "nature on the rampage" subgenre of science fiction/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
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, particularly on the USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...
; but primarily because of Shatner's starring role.
Plot
Robert "Rack" Hansen, a veterinarianVeterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
in rural Verde Valley
Verde Valley
The Verde Valley is a valley in central Arizona in the United States of America. The Verde River runs through it. It is overlooked by Mingus Mountain and the Mogollon Rim.- History :The first notice of this region appears in the report of one Espejo,...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, receives an urgent call from a local farmer, Walter Colby (Woody Strode
Woody Strode
Woodrow Wilson Woolwine "Woody" Strode was a decathlete and football star who went on to become a pioneering black American film actor. He was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor for his role in Spartacus in 1960...
). Colby is upset because his prize calf
Calf
Calves are the young of domestic cattle. Calves are reared to become adult cattle, or are slaughtered for their meat, called veal.-Terminology:...
has become sick for no apparent reason, and brings the animal to Hansen's laboratory. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterward. Hansen tells Colby he cannot explain what made the animal so ill so quickly, but takes samples of the calf's blood to a university lab in Flagstaff
Flagstaff, Arizona
Flagstaff is a city located in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2010, the city's population was 65,870. The population of the Metropolitan Statistical Area was at 134,421 in 2010. It is the county seat of Coconino County...
.
A few days later, Diane Ashley (Bolling), an arachnologist, arrives looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
venom
Venom
Venom is the general term referring to any variety of toxins used by certain types of animals that inject it into their victims by the means of a bite or a sting...
, which Hansen greets with skepticism. Undaunted, Ashley tells him the problem is serious and that she wishes to examine the animal's carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm. Moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch (Altovise Davis
Altovise Davis
Altovise Davis was an American entertainer, best known as Sammy Davis, Jr.'s third wife.Born in Charlotte, North Carolina as Altovise Joanne Gore, she was raised in Brooklyn, New York and worked during the 1960s as a chorus-line dancer in various musical shows both in London and on Broadway.Her...
), discovers their dog is dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog's carcass and concludes that like the calf, it died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is incredulous, until Colby states that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland. He takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, which is covered with tarantulas. Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging together due to the heavy use of pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack and eat larger animals.
Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull
Bull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
stampedes out; it is being attacked by tarantulas. Ashley notes that the spiders likely will not be afraid to attack people either. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, many of the spiders escape out of a tunnel. Colby is attacked in his truck the next day, sending it over the side of a hill and killing him. Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith (David McLean
David McLean
David McLean was an American film and television actor, best-known for appearing in many Marlboro television and print advertisements, starting in the early 1960s....
), examine the wreckage. Colby's body is found encased in a cocoon of spider webs. Meanwhile, Ashley is notified by her colleagues that a sample of venom from one of the spiders 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
Roy Engel
Roy Engel was an American television and film actor. Engel was born in New York, New York, United States.-Career:...
), who orders the sheriff to spray the hills and the surrounding countryside with a 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 the idea, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair
County Fair
"County Fair" is a song written by Brian Wilson and Gary Usher for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was originally released as the second track on their 1962 album Surfin' Safari. On November 26th of that year, it was released as the B-side to The Beach Boys' third single, "Ten Little...
. A crop duster is enlisted to spray the pesticide. Once the pilot is airborne, he is attacked by tarantulas, and crashes the plane before he can disperse the spray.
The spiders begin their assault on the local residents, killing Birch and Hansen's sister-in-law, Terri (Marcy Lafferty). Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Terri's daughter, Linda from the spiders. Hansen and Ashley take Linda to the Washburn Lodge. They consult with the sheriff, who tells them that the spiders are everywhere and Camp Verde cut off from the outside world. Smith drives into town, while Hansen and the other survivors at the lodge plan to load up an RV and escape. However, the spiders trap them in the lodge, and they barricade themselves inside. Meanwhile, Smith arrives in Camp Verde and finds the town under siege by the spiders. Smith tries to escape, but is killed when another car crashes into a support post under the town's water tower, causing it to fall on his vehicle.
Back at the lodge, the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge's basement to change a blown fuse
Fuse (electrical)
In electronics and electrical engineering, a fuse is a type of low resistance resistor that acts as a sacrificial device to provide overcurrent protection, of either the load or source circuit...
. He succeeds, but is besieged by spiders who break through one of the basement windows, by using their combined weight. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.
The film concludes the next day, with the survivors rigging up a radio receiver and listening for news of the attacks. To their surprise, the radio broadcast doesn't mention the attacks, indicating that the outside world is oblivious to what has happened. 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 all of Camp Verde is encased in cocoons as well.
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 environmentalismEnvironmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
in North America, such as Day of the Animals
Day of the Animals
The Day of the Animals is a 1977 American horror film thriller directed by William Girdler and based on a story written by Edward L. Montoro...
, Night of the Lepus
Night of the Lepus
Night of the Lepus, also known as Rabbits, is a 1972 American science fiction horror film based on the 1964 science fiction novel The Year of the Angry Rabbit. Released theatrically on October 4, 1972, it focuses on members of a small Arizona town who battle thousands of mutated, carnivorous killer...
, Killer Bees
Killer Bees (1974 film)
Killer Bees is a 1974 made for TV horror movie featuring Gloria Swanson that originally aired on ABC on February 26, 1974. The film, which was directed by Curtis Harrington, had a very small cast, including Kate Jackson, Craig Stevens, John Getz, and Edward Albert.-Plot:Madame von Bohlen , a...
, Frogs
Frogs (film)
Frogs is a 1972 horror film directed by George McCowan. The film falls into the "eco-horror" category since it tells the story of an upper-class U.S. Southern family who are victimized by several different animal species, including snakes, birds, and lizards, as well as the occasional butterfly...
and Silent Running
Silent Running
Silent Running is a 1972 environmentally themed science fiction film starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumbull, who had previously worked as a special effects supervisor on such science fiction films as 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Andromeda Strain.-Plot summary:Silent Running depicts a...
. 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
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
and the numerous copycat films that arrived in its wake, as well as the Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
classic The Birds
The Birds (film)
The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...
.
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 A. Romero
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
's famous horror film Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Living Dead is a 1968 American independent black-and-white zombie film and cult film directed by George A. Romero, starring Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea and Karl Hardman. It premiered on October 1, 1968, and was completed on a USD$114,000 budget. After decades of cinematic re-releases, it...
, 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.
Production
Kantor told FangoriaFangoria (magazine)
Fangoria is an internationally-distributed US film fan magazine specializing in the genres of horror, slasher, splatter and exploitation films, in regular publication since 1979.-Planning:...
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
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$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
Bee sting
A bee sting is strictly a sting from a bee . In the vernacular it can mean a sting of a bee, wasp, hornet, or yellow jacket. Some people may even call the bite of a horse-fly 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
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
, including "To Serve Man
To Serve Man
"To Serve Man" is a science fiction short story written by Damon Knight. It first appeared in the November 1950 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction and has been reprinted a number of times, including in Frontiers in Space , Far Out and The Best of Damon Knight...
" and "The Invaders
The Invaders (The Twilight Zone)
"The Invaders" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:An old woman is apparently living alone in a very rustic cabin. She is dressed shabbily and there are no modern conveniences in evidence...
", as well as in at least one episode of The Fugitive
The Fugitive (TV series)
The Fugitive is an American drama series produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor from the fictional town of Stafford, Indiana, who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death...
. The country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk 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
Dorsey Burnette
Dorsey Burnette was an early Rockabilly singer. With his younger brother, Johnny Burnette, and a friend named Paul Burlison, he was a founder member of The Rock and Roll Trio.-Background and early career:Dorsey Burnett was born on December 28, 1932 to Willie May and Dorsey Burnett Sr...
.
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.
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 rightsAnimal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
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
1990 in film
The year 1990 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* CGI technique is expanded with motion capture for CGI characters, used in Total Recall .* The first digitally-manipulated matte painting is used, in Die Hard 2....
horror comedy Arachnophobia
Arachnophobia (film)
Arachnophobia is a 1990 American comedy horror film directed by Frank Marshall and starring Jeff Daniels and John Goodman. It was the first film released by Hollywood Pictures....
, 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
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
models.
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 VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
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
Extremely low frequency
Extremely low frequency is a term used to describe radiation frequencies from 3 to 300 Hz. In atmosphere science, an alternative definition is usually given, from 3 Hz to 3 kHz...
(or ELF). The synopsis also details Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
imagery that would factor into the plot.
Background
- 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.Sammy Davis, Jr.Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....
- Woody Strode, who plays Walter Colby, was probably best known to film audiences for his role in the Lee MarvinLee MarvinLee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
/Burt LancasterBurt LancasterBurton Stephen "Burt" Lancaster was an American film actor noted for his athletic physique and distinctive smile...
western film The Professionals. Sports historians know Strode as one of the first two African-American football players to break the National Football LeagueNational Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
'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 LaneThe Little Girl Who Lives Down the LaneThe Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a 1976 Canadian-French film directed by Nicolas Gessner and starring Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. It was written by Laird Koenig, based on Koenig's 1974 novel of the same title; Koenig also wrote a stage play based on his book...
, which starred a young Jodie FosterJodie FosterAlicia Christian "Jodie" Foster is an American actress, film director, producer as well as a former child actress....
. 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 JohnElton JohnSir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
's "Rocket Man". Footage of this performance was featured in the Comedy Central RoastComedy Central RoastThe Comedy Central Roasts are a series of celebrity roast specials which air on the Comedy Central cable network.-History:Between 1998 and 2001, Comedy Central produced and televised the annual roasts of the New York Friars' Club. After the original five-year agreement expired, the network began...
of Shatner. - Two people involved in the film's production went on to win Oscars. Ve NeillVe NeillVe Neill is an American makeup artist. Her real name is Mary Flores. She has won three Academy Awards, for the films Beetlejuice, Mrs. Doubtfire and Ed Wood...
, a makeup artist on the movie, won shared Oscars for her work on Mrs. DoubtfireMrs. DoubtfireMrs. Doubtfire is a 1993 American comedy film starring Robin Williams and Sally Field and based on the novel Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. It was directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It won the Academy Award for Best Makeup...
and Ed WoodEd Wood (film)Ed Wood is a 1994 American comedy-drama biopic directed and produced by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp as cult filmmaker Edward D. Wood, Jr. The film concerns the period in Wood's life when he made his best-known films as well as his relationship with actor Bela Lugosi, played by Martin Landau...
. Steven Zaillan, a co-editor on the film, won for his screenwriting of the Steven SpielbergSteven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
film Schindler's ListSchindler's ListSchindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
. - 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 HaleBarbara HaleBarbara Hale is an American actress best known for her role as legal secretary Della Street on more than 250 episodes of the long-running Perry Mason television series and later reprising the role in dozens of made-for-TV movies....
and Donna MillsDonna MillsDonna Mills is an American actress, most well known for her role as Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing.-Early years:...
, appeared in other "killer spider" pictures: Hale in The Giant Spider InvasionThe Giant Spider InvasionThe Giant Spider Invasion is a low-budget 1975 film produced by Transcentury Pictures, a partnership owned by the film's director Bill Rebane. The film is about giant spiders that terrorize the town of Merrill, Wisconsin and the surrounding area. The Giant Spider Invasion was given a U.S. release...
and Mills in the made-for-TV Curse of the Black WidowCurse of the Black WidowCurse of the Black Widow is made-for-television horror film, by Dan Curtis, and starring Anthony Franciosa, Donna Mills, Patty Duke, Vic Morrow, and June Allyson. It originally aired on ABC in 1977.-Plot:...
, 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 popular culture
- The film is mentioned on an episode of the animated sitcom The CriticThe CriticThe Critic is an American prime time animated series revolving around the life of film critic Jay Sherman, voiced by actor Jon Lovitz. It was created by Al Jean and Mike Reiss, both of whom had worked as writers on The Simpsons. The Critic had 23 episodes produced, first broadcast on ABC in 1994,...
. In the season 2 episode "From Chunk to Hunk", Jay Sherman reviews a 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!" - In the Warren ZevonWarren ZevonWarren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
Song "Life'll Kill Ya," Zevon says "its the Kingdom of the Spiders" in the opening verse referring to the movie.
Release
Shout! FactoryShout! Factory
Shout! Factory is an entertainment company founded in 2003 that was started by Richard Foos , Bob Emmer and Garson Foos initially as a specialty music label...
released Kingdom of The Spiders: Special Edition on DVD in early 2010.
External links
- Behind-the-scenes production photos Collection of crew member Stephen Lodge.