Susan is a young girl who had always had an fascination with spiders, but her mom didn't like it. After finding out she had planned to kill her father, just to be with his brother. She scares her mother to death by releasing a Tarantula on her. Years have past, Susan now has a big collection of pet Tarantulas, but one night some hoons come into the mortuary where she lives with her father, to steal a coffin and but they kill one of her spiders. Now she what's to take revenge on those who were involved by releasing her pets onto them. But that's one of her worries, as her sly uncle is now trying to put the moves on her.
While searching around in a second hand shop for some unknown films, I came across this little oddity which was called "Kiss of the Tarantula". Well, I liked the look of the front cover of the video case and the synopsis sounded like great b-grade, drive-in 70's feature. Paid my $2 for it, later I watch it that night and I gotta say that this little tale was a fair treat. Not great, but fair is best the way to put it.
This simple-minded low budget horror flick had an innocently sweet tone to it, and you'll definitely be thinking of "Willard" (1971), as they shared definite similarities. Just this time it's the spiders turn. Also it adds a twinkle of "Carrie" (1976) into the equation too. But in that case, it doesn't match the thrills of those particular films. It skewed more towards a glum melodrama actually, with the creepy crawlies playing second fiddle to Susan's troubles with her devious uncle. I guess that's just the way the plot plays out, as it seems to lose interest in the tarantulas, because they don't even pop up in the third act. Though saying that, just the look of a hairy spider makes my skin crawl. But here that wasn't always the case, yeah there are some eerie scenes like a grisly panic caused by the tarantulas in a car and a pulsating air vent scene (..now that was eerie). But these were more provoked by panic and you somewhat laugh because its basically silly watching the spiders crawl all over their initial victims. Nothing is totally horrific about the hysteria laced attacks, but more so... freaky. Mainly for a person who has arachnophobia. Most of the time Susan's either pondering around, caressing with her fingertips and talking to them! Suzanna Ling is rather gorgeous as Susan Bradley and Eric Mason is notable as Walter Bradley. The rest of the amateurish cast, I was surprised, they gave above average performances. Though, there were one or two characters that seem to vanish, after thinking they might have more of a role. The dialogue is stilted and the direction is mostly dour with the exception of a couple lines of added irony, but the minor production to a certain agree still generates a surprise or two that sticks with you. That really goes to the cleverly illustrated climax that effectively packs a killer punch. Backing all that up is an electronic score, which did at times settled the mood, but other times came across as unbalanced with rather odd choices and placement. If your looking for something cheesy, you won't find it here, because it takes itself rather seriously. It does comes across like a TV feature, but still it doesn't hamper proceedings.
A reasonable time waster, but don't expect a whole lot of spider terror.
While searching around in a second hand shop for some unknown films, I came across this little oddity which was called "Kiss of the Tarantula". Well, I liked the look of the front cover of the video case and the synopsis sounded like great b-grade, drive-in 70's feature. Paid my $2 for it, later I watch it that night and I gotta say that this little tale was a fair treat. Not great, but fair is best the way to put it.
This simple-minded low budget horror flick had an innocently sweet tone to it, and you'll definitely be thinking of "Willard" (1971), as they shared definite similarities. Just this time it's the spiders turn. Also it adds a twinkle of "Carrie" (1976) into the equation too. But in that case, it doesn't match the thrills of those particular films. It skewed more towards a glum melodrama actually, with the creepy crawlies playing second fiddle to Susan's troubles with her devious uncle. I guess that's just the way the plot plays out, as it seems to lose interest in the tarantulas, because they don't even pop up in the third act. Though saying that, just the look of a hairy spider makes my skin crawl. But here that wasn't always the case, yeah there are some eerie scenes like a grisly panic caused by the tarantulas in a car and a pulsating air vent scene (..now that was eerie). But these were more provoked by panic and you somewhat laugh because its basically silly watching the spiders crawl all over their initial victims. Nothing is totally horrific about the hysteria laced attacks, but more so... freaky. Mainly for a person who has arachnophobia. Most of the time Susan's either pondering around, caressing with her fingertips and talking to them! Suzanna Ling is rather gorgeous as Susan Bradley and Eric Mason is notable as Walter Bradley. The rest of the amateurish cast, I was surprised, they gave above average performances. Though, there were one or two characters that seem to vanish, after thinking they might have more of a role. The dialogue is stilted and the direction is mostly dour with the exception of a couple lines of added irony, but the minor production to a certain agree still generates a surprise or two that sticks with you. That really goes to the cleverly illustrated climax that effectively packs a killer punch. Backing all that up is an electronic score, which did at times settled the mood, but other times came across as unbalanced with rather odd choices and placement. If your looking for something cheesy, you won't find it here, because it takes itself rather seriously. It does comes across like a TV feature, but still it doesn't hamper proceedings.
A reasonable time waster, but don't expect a whole lot of spider terror.