Kingdom of the Spiders does something that I would have thought was impossible had the film never existed: it fits William Shatner into a lead role in a rural American setting, pits him against killer tarantulas, and manages, for the most part, to remain serious. Despite its successes, however, the film's overarching problem is that it doesn't know what to do with its moments that aren't directly related to the spider invasion. Shatner performs well, there is adequate horror, and there are elements of the movie that are almost impossible not to like, but it wanders pointlessly between its key scenes. This aimlessness proves to be something that not even Shatner can overcome.

The town of Verde Valley, Arizona, is having some problems. Its colors consist only of shades of brown, and one man is hogging the only two attractive women there. Also, farmer Colby’s prize calf got killed by super-spiders. The calf's death at first seems to be the result of some sort of disease, but veterinarian "Rack" Hansen (William Shatner) and his recently-arrived suburban entomologist colleague, Diane Ashley, confirm that the cause of death was a massive dose of tarantula venom. Apparently as a response to heavy local use of pesticides, the area's arachnids have evolved to being capable of taking down dogs and cows for food. And if they can kill cows, you know what else they can kill: humans.

There are a few missteps at first, in which the film seems to want to be a campy sci-fi/horror parody. There's a tobacco-chewing hillbilly gas station attendant who pronounces "here" like "hya," and at one point during the mystery of the calf's death, Rack drives off in his truck and is accompanied by a James Bond-style soundtrack. Thankfully, the film soon settles into a consistent tone. While the movie often struggles to progress through its downtime, it at least becomes clear in its intentions.

Throughout the film, and especially during the second act, there are too many slow and inconsequential moments. During our breaks from spider attacks and spider attack investigations, we get to watch Rack develop relationships with two women: Terry, Rack's late brother's widow; and Dr. Ashley. Now, in most cases this would work. The problem is that Kingdom of the Spiders does absolutely nothing with these aspects of the story. Rack's relationship with Terry is perplexing. The two engage in heavy flirting, and Terry accidentally calls Rack by his brother's name at one point, but Rack never comes close to actually engaging with her romantically. On the other hand, Rack begins building a relationship with Ashley, but the movie ends before it can turn into anything. On top of all of this, Rack never has to resolve the fact that he has romantic feelings for two women. In fact, he never even seems to give the should-be dilemma any thought. The time the film spends on Rack bonding with these women is totally wasted.

Another aspect of Rack's character that one would think would come into play is the death of his brother. The death occurred before the events of the plot, but the film makes a point to bring up the fact that he was killed on his second day in Vietnam. And that's all we get. It never comes into play in any way later on. The writers (of which there are, astonishingly, four) seem to understand that the characters need depth, but they then prove themselves to have no idea of what to do with that depth. So, these aspects of the characters just sit there unused.

Thankfully, during these failed attempts at characterization, the film does treat us to some startling images. Of course the shots that teem with tarantulas will be enough on their own to scare those with arachnophobic tendencies, especially when the tarantula hordes are on characters, but the spider horror is used in other ways, too. There is one scene in which a full-grown cow is killed by tarantulas. The scene is not the least bit violent or gory, but it provides one simple image that is chilling: the dead cow lying on the ground, with multiple tarantulas on its body like furry boils. One recurring image that is outright frightening is that of entire human bodies wrapped in spiders' silk. These scenes lose nothing from the movie's apparently low budget, and seeing lifeless human bodies treated with no more respect than houseflies is disturbing to the point at which you might wonder how, even considering the absence of blood, this flick got a PG rating.

As one might reasonably expect, the horror of Kingdom of the Spiders culminates in its third act, but it culminates with surprising effectiveness. This portion of the film takes on the same techniques used in Hitchcock's The Birds to create an atmosphere that binds the viewer with fear. At one point, a child on a swing is suddenly surrounded by the arachnids, which are even perched on a nearby chain-link fence. Soon after, the characters barricade themselves in one room of a house, and even the cinematography mimics that of The Birds, as the camera keeps the ceiling in view to evoke the feeling of imprisonment. The final scene I won't give away, but it presents the most horrifying image that the film's elements could have combined to produce.

On a superficial level, this is an ecological moral tale in which nature fights back against human chemical repression. Beneath that, though, it is about humankind's interdependency on one another, coupled with the horror of isolation. This theme is seen first in Colby's persistent fear of being quarantined when it seems his calf was killed by a disease, and it resurfaces with city-woman Dr. Ashley's introduction into small-town Verde Valley to assist in solving the problem. The interdependency theme is also demonstrated by constant friendly interaction among the film's characters. The movie is flawed in that its characters rarely interact in any rewarding way, but the widespread prevalence of interaction alone is important to the film's ideas. Ultimately, Kingdom of the Spiders demonstrates our need for each other. It also demonstrates the horror of having the freedom of human contact taken away, not only with the spiders' figurative and literal entrapment of characters but also with the fate of those killed by the spiders: being wrapped up alone, dying with no physical contact with the rest of the world.

Shatner's acting is dynamic as usual, but it occasionally veers outside the boundaries of believability. At one extreme there are moments when he seems to be impersonating himself, delivering jerky gestures to punctuate dialogue. At the other extreme he sinks to levels that can best be described as alarming. During one of Rack's flirtatious moments with Terry, Terry says, "Rack, you're a funny man. You won't be with your brother's wife, but you take care of her like you were. Isn't that like buying the cow and giving the milk away?" To this, Rack responds, "If you don't quit pestering me, one of these mornings I'm gonna show up ... [leans in and lowers his voice] and start milkin' that cow."¹ It would be an understatement to say that this exchange is uncomfortable. These moments, however, are representative of but a small portion of Shatner's performance. For the most part, he acts surprisingly naturally in the unlikely role, delivering his unique charisma and appropriating it well to the setting and style of the film.

Kingdom of the Spiders is sort of like another 'seventies cult hit that I recently wrote about: Dark Star. It's not all that good, but it's still something that every science fiction fan should see. Both of these films also share the quality of having a surprisingly effective final act. Watching them is like watching a director figure out things as he goes along; if you're frequently bored by his efforts, you'll also be happy to see him succeed in the end.