In-between his well-known roles as the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the ’60s, and L.A. police lieutenant T.J. Hooker in the ’80s, William Shatner had a starring role in the 1977 creature feature, Kingdom of the Spiders. If you think this film was more horror schlock, typical of its era…think again.
A NEW SPECIES OF HORROR IS BORN
With that tagline—one of many—here is a real brief overview of Kingdom of the Spiders, which was nominated for three Saturn Awards, including Best Horror Film and a nod to Shatner for Best Actor. In a restrained role (really), he portrays veterinarian “Rack” Hansen in rural Verde Valley, Arizona. When cattle and other domestic animals begin dying under strange circumstances, Rack sends blood samples to a lab at a Flagstaff university. This brings arachnologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) to the town, curious to learn why the deaths were caused by spider venom—specifically from tarantulas. (Okay, Shatner was mostly restrained, but a bit of James T. Kirk surfaced when he laid eyes on the attractive Ms. Bolling.)
Rack and Diane enjoy a quiet moment before the spiders hit the fan.
In a nutshell, Diane posits that due to pesticides destroying their food sources, the usually timid tarantulas are participating in a mass migration to find new ones. And because of their huge numbers, the size of their prey doesn’t matter. As Rack and Diane work frantically to prevent deaths, the attacks escalate, and now they include people. The residents of Verde Valley try to flee the town, but they are inundated by the creepy-crawlies. Rack and Diane, along with a few other survivors, take shelter in a lodge, surrounded by thousands of hungry arachnids. How will this end?
By the way, when I say thousands of tarantulas, I’m not exaggerating. The film’s $500,000 budget included $50,000 for five thousand tarantulas, at $10 apiece. No CGI or special effects creating giant bugs. Normal-sized tarantulas are creepy enough, ya think?
No one leaves Verde Valley alive!
If you’ve never seen Kingdom of the Spiders, or haven’t checked it out for a long time (like me), give it a look. Just to see William Shatner in a “restrained” role is worth the price of admission.
The first time I saw this was in the days of channel surfing, with no TV Guide and no Internet. I came in when Shatner was on his own exploring an abandoned world of webs. It took a good five or ten minutes before I was sure it wasn’t an obscure Star Trek episode!
He is forever typecast, is he not? 🙂
Yes, it is a little amazing the contrast between his pre-Star Trek roles and his post-Star Trek roles. I finally got around to seeing Judgement at Nuremberg several months ago and was surprised to see him show up as a very young Captain.
Somehow I missed this! Will have to check it out. Hopefully they timed the filming of the movie so it was during the natural migration time for tarantulas !! Ha
Not sure about that, Indy, but they did indicate that it was a forced migration due to pesticides destroying their usual food sources.