Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)

A small desert town in Arizona is overrun by tarantulas. First livestock and pets are attacked and killed before the spiders turn on the human population.

Local vet Rack Hansen (William Shatner) is at a loss as to what’s killing the livestock, and the fun really begins when entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) arrives and determines that the animals were killed by spider venom.

The film delivers some real suspense – especially toward the end when Rack and Diane are holed up in a deserted hotel defending themselves from a legion of the eight-legged beats – and there’s a good supporting cast, but this is really a one-man Shatner show.

$50,000 of the film budget was spent on spiders. The producers offered to pay $10 each for live tarantulas, and handlers collected 5,000 of them so there’s no CGI, no puppets, no plastic – just wall to wall spiders! Definitely not a film for arachnophobes.

Rack Hansen
William Shatner
Diane Ashley
Tiffany Bolling
Walter Colby
Woody Strode
Birch Colby
Altovise Davis
Emma Washburn
Lieux Dressler
Gene Smith
David McLean
Linda Hansen
Natasha Ryan
Vern Johnson
Joe Ross
Terry Hansen
Marcy Lafferty
Betty Johnson
Adele Malis
Mayor Connors
Roy Engel
Earl Forbes
Hoke Howell
Clyde
Bill Foster
The Baron
Whitey Hughes
Deputy
Jay Lawrence
Mildred
Bettie Bolling

Director
John ‘Bud’ Cardos