Monster of the Day #3080

Updated on August 6, 2020 By Ken Begg 10 Comments

Might was well keep the theme going with a bit of a minor classic. Yep, it’s Kingdom of the Spiders with William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling and the great Woody Strode. Content Warning: Spiders are clearly killed in the movie, so avoid if you find that sort of thing alarming. Otherwise, it’s pretty great.

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  • As a kid I used to confuse this with Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo. Or maybe it was the other way around. I dunno. In any case, minor classic about covers it. One of the better Bird style flicks, with a killer ending that works much better if your little brother isn’t a spider nut and doesn’t tell you exactly what’s wrong with it.

  • bgbear_rnh

    No Capt. Sullenberger here.

  • Rock Baker

    Actually, no real spiders are killed in this movie. It looks like it due to sharp editing, but they didn’t actually hurt any of the creepy little fiends.

  • Ken_Begg

    Rock, they clearly run over a bunch of spiders, and pour boiling water on some others. I’ve seen this like a dozen times on big screens (mostly at B-Fests over the years), and you just can’t get around it.

  • Rock Baker

    It’s staged well, but no actual spiders get crunched. They were all pets loaned to the production and returned. Several prop spiders filled with goo were used for the scenes where spiders are seen getting squashed (expertly placed for the scene where the police car is moving down main street during the panic, with everything going on it really comes together). Boiling water is one of the easiest effects to fake. I have no reservations about destroying spiders, and frankly I’m a little disturbed by people who do, but the crew actually handled the critters with a good deal of care. I think only two spiders were killed during the production, and they were victims of other spiders.

  • bgbear_rnh

    One was attacked by Shatner’s toupee and another a victim of the theme song.

  • Eric Hinkle

    People always said that hairpiece was a murderous fiend.

  • kgb_san_diego

    Between this and Empire of the Ants — ahhh, good times on HBO growing up.

  • The Rev.

    Intereating, since I feel the same way about people who just kill any spider they come across because they can. I’m not saying I haven’t killed them; sometimes you just react when you suddenly find something crawling on you, and in my (thankfully) only encounter with a brown recluse I was quite ready to destroy it before realizing it was already long dead (found it at the bottom of a box while moving). But having no reservations? Well. Anyway.

    As far as the movie, I would be absolutely relieved to hear they didn’t kill all those spiders, because overall I quite enjoyed the movie, and was impressed with the obvious care they were taking not to hurt them throughout…and then the climax happened and I was literally sick to my stomach. Perhaps my memories are playing me false, but I seem to recall quite a few real and moving spiders being stomped and driven over. I suppose I could watch it again at some point.

  • Rodford Smith

    *Snerk*