the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Poor William Shatner, how he must have longed for the deck of the Enterprise instead of the hot desert on earth surrounded by a few thousand tarantulas. Shatner is a veterinarian who has discovered that one of Woody Strode's calves was killed and the lab results which entomologist Tiffany Bolling brings in shows it was an incredible amount of spider venom.In van she's one of the scientist who has warned against the overuse of DDT which has killed the spider's natural food supply. Now the spiders have developed new feeding habits and they've gotten organized against humankind.The human players look like they would rather be anywhere than in this Thanksgiving special of a movie. Especially Shatner whom he fired his agent after this would have been justified.I will say this though, the ending was quite bizarre, almost but not quite made up for the rest of this film.Unless you love arachnids, pass it up.

After the monumental success of Jaws, everybody tried to copy it. And it went beyond Shark movies. There were land based terrors as well. Such a film is Kingdom of the Spiders. Although it's pretty ridiculous the suspense of the film actually works all right, and it's actually decent. It's no masterpiece but for what it's worth, it's really not that bad. It actually plays out a lot more like The Birds than Jaws, in that there's a large swarm of the killer animals. The buildup is kind of similar too. The attacks begin early on, and every now and then. Then by the end it escalates into a large scale frenzy. Then again it's not perfect and if you're looking for a really good "nature attacks" film, go see The Birds or Jaws, because they're both much better than this. For what it's worth, Kingdom of the Spiders is an enjoyable William Shatner spider fest.

William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling and Marcy Lafferty star in this 1977 sci-fi/horror film. This takes place in the small town of Verde Valley located in Arizona. Shatner (Star Trek) plays Rack Hansen, a veterinarian who discovers that deadly spiders are roaming about due to insecticides wiping out their natural food supply. Soon, Rack meets entomologist, Diane Ashley (Bolling) and together they help stop the spiders from terrorizing the town. Lafferty plays Terry, Rack's sister-in-law and she was actually Shatner's wife at the time. This is pretty good and I remember when it used to be on TV years ago. Shatner is great in it and I also like Dorsey Burnette's "Peaceful Verde Valley" song at the beginning and end. I recommend this.

In the countryside, after the death of the awarded calf of the farmer Walter Colby (Woody Strode), the veterinary Dr. Robert 'Rack' Hansen (William Shatner) sends blood samples to be analyzed by the University. A couple of days later, the scientist Dr. Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) comes to the location and tells that the animal was bitten by spiders and killed by a massive dose of their venom. The skeptical Rack heads with Diane to Walter's farm and they find a huge spider nest in the field. Further, they find that the town is surrounded an enormous number of killer spiders and there is no way to run."Kingdom of the Spiders" is a horror trash-cult movie, with William Shatner in the lead role in a period that he was worshiped as Captain James T. Kirk of "Star Trek". The storyline follows the usual standard of this type of film (a murder; the discovery of the cause; the Mayor that wants to preserve his town for a big local fair; and so on). But the film is above the average of this type of film. In the end, it is worthwhile watching this entertaining film. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "O Império das Aranhas" ("The Kingdom of the Spiders")