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.

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.

That itsy bitsy Spiders(Tarantulas) are on the crawl and they are upset ! TV films are generally dismissed as trite and shallow, but somehow "Kingdom of the Spiders" rises to a slightly higher level. Rick Hanson(William Shatner) local Veterinarian is perplexed by the deaths of several farm animals. Little does he know that the Spiders are revolting against the excesses of pesticides and turnabout is fair play. While the suspense and action don't always peak at the same time, the film does hold your interest as to how the director intends to showcase the next attack of the tarantulas. I didn't see a disclaimer that "no animals were harmed during filming", as if pickup trucks rolling over exploding tarantulas kinda gave it away. But the film develops nicely, even with a few contrived scenes.BTW, tarantulas are basically docile creatures, so they really had to ramp up the attacks to make them look effective. So give it a view, I gave the film 9 out of 10 rating, because for a goofy film, it does deliver.

This film DID satisfy my current nostalgic craving for all things 70's, a decade when I, as a 2 to 12 year old, devoured TV-movies like this and "Ants" with abandon. Two things I feel compelled to mention...1) I love Shatner as Captain Kirk. Huge fan of Trek. But here, he comes off kind of oily and lecherous when he pours on the charm......odd. 2) I'm not a PETA activist, but I was really struck by how many spiders were stomped, run over, burned, boiled and mangled in this film. I'm sure, in the 70's, this would not have stood out to anyone, but in this age of special effects, where they'll show you in the extra features how they make a fake tarantula, and what brand tarter sauce they put in it for an effective "squishing" scene, it really jumped out at me. I felt kind of bad, to be honest....MANY spiders were hurt in the making of this film!Otherwise, a very good 70's "creature" film, best watched alongside "Day of the Animals" or "Frogs", for a fine double-feature.