31 Days of Halloween: They’re Coming!

Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

****** (6 out of 10 stars)
Director: John “Bud” Cardos
Producers: Igo Kantor, Jeffrey M. Sneller
Starring: William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler

“They’re not just crawling, they’re coming for us!” – Diane Ashley

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Yes, well… let us now descend into the frightfully oblique world of Eco-Horror, that peculiar subgenre where nature itself turns against us—vengeful, unrelenting, and all too real.

It has been many years since I first laid eyes upon this film. It is old, yes, but back then—when the world was young, and so was I—it frightened me away from dark corners and tall grass. And even now, my hungry collectors of horror, I urge you: do not creep away from this one.

Kingdom of the Spiders is a sticky gem from 1977, spun from the silk of low-budget ambition and high-concept dread. With a modest budget of only $1 million, it spun a web of box office success, drawing in $17 million—a testament to its eerie allure.

The story unfolds in the sun-scorched fields of Camp Verde, Arizona, where veterinarian Rack Hansen (played with rugged charm by William Shatner) uncovers a disturbing pattern: livestock are dying, and the culprit is no ordinary pest. Enter arachnologist Diane Ashley, who confirms the unthinkable—tarantulas, thousands of them, driven by pesticide-induced starvation, are swarming together in a terrifying display of nature’s revenge.

Now, for those of you who believed Shatner’s ability to terrify ended at 30,000 feet with something on the wing of the plane—think again. Here, he wrestles not with gremlins, but with a creeping, carapaced menace that invades homes, silences towns, and cocoons entire buildings in silken death.

Yes, it’s dated. The social behaviors and gender dynamics are, shall we say, cringe-inducing by modern standards. But the film’s practical effects—real tarantulas, mind you—still evoke a visceral reaction. There are scenes that will cause the hairs on your arms to rise like the legs of the very creatures it features.

The ending, bleak and claustrophobic, is a masterstroke of 1970s horror nihilism. No last-minute rescue. No triumphant escape. Just silence… and silk.

Rather than bore you with further trivia (though did you know over 5,000 live spiders were used?), let us instead take the plunge—into the carapaced, carnivorous Kingdom of the Spiders. It may be old, but it still bites.