Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo starts in Ecuador in South America where two partners Fred (Howard Hesseman) & Buddy (Tom Atkins) are about to fly off to San Francisco with a cargo bay full of coffee beans that they intend to sell for a huge profit, unfortunately they fail to realise that lots of deadly tarantulas have gotten on board... As Fred & Buddy head for San Francisco their plane develops a technical problem which forces them to land in the small Californian town of Finley Ville, however before they get the opportunity Buddy is bitten by a tarantula & the plane crashes in a field. Fire Chief Bert Springer (Claude Akins), Sheriff Beasley (Sandy McPeak) & the town's mayor Jack Douglas (Bert Remsen) are on the scene in no time. As they fight to rescue the trapped pilots the tarantulas make their escape & scatter. Within minutes Frank (Edwin Owens) has become the tarantulas first victim, shortly after Gloria (Penelope Windust) has become the second & Dr. Hodgins (Pat Hingle) soon realises what's happening. However Finley Ville is an orange producing town & unless the oranges go out on time the town will be financially crippled, but can they send out oranges infested with deadly tarantulas? Plus any chemical treatment to them will destroy the unique flavour...
Directed by Stuart Hagmann Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a pretty obscure & hard to find made-for-TV film & to be brutally honest that's a bit of a blessing as it's rather crap. The script by John Groves & Guerdon Trueblood is painfully slow as it's over half an hour of boring exposition before the tarantulas even start to leave the plane, it's dull as there are very few attack scenes & it concentrates on the deeply uninteresting drama surrounding the oranges more than the fact that these tarantulas are killing people & is stupid as it seems to take itself far too seriously & features a silly climax where a guy holds a cage full of wasp's up to a microphone to scare the tarantulas into a comatose state. As I've already said Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a really slow film but I think it needs saying again, for a film that lasts over 90 minutes not very much happens. The character's are clichéd, the hero & his missus, the corrupt official who only cares for money, the local Doctor who tries to warn the town, the annoying kid who becomes involved & the level headed reasonable character who has a plan in every situation. They are all dull, have little personality & there is a brief sub plot about Gloria having an affair which last for about 5 minutes & then completely forgotten about. Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a very unfocused & uneven film that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, is it a horror? A drama? A thriller? I suppose it tries to be all three but fails miserably at being any & doesn't satisfy in any regard. The only good thing I can say about it is that tarantulas are cool, it has some reasonably nice location shooting & while it's dull I suppose it's sort of watchable & it's just a shame it doesn't deliver much in the way of entertainment as it definitely had potential.
Director Hagmann does nothing to liven the dull proceedings up, there is no style or visual flair & he fails to create any excitement, atmosphere or tension which is a real killer as far as the film goes. The tarantulas themselves just crawl across things very slowly & we get shot after shot like this which becomes boring as they never do anything else & it's hard to feel scared by something so slow. There is no blood or gore so forget about that. Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo maybe good for one thing though, to stretch the running time out Hagmann pads the film with seemingly endless shots of the orange factory & it's inner workings so if you've ever wanted to know what happens in an (70's) orange factory here's your chance!
Technically the film is alright, nothing special but is professionally made although I thought the music was crap & it annoyed me, basically Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo has cheap made-for-TV film written all over it which is not a good thing. The acting was OK as well but that sentimental ending is embarrassing to watch.
Trantulas: The Deadly Cargo is pretty crap stuff all the way, it has no excitement, it's slow, it's dull & since Arachnophobia (1990) is ten times better & much more widely available there is no need whatsoever to be wasting your time on this. For die-hard killer spider film fans only, if such people exist.
Directed by Stuart Hagmann Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a pretty obscure & hard to find made-for-TV film & to be brutally honest that's a bit of a blessing as it's rather crap. The script by John Groves & Guerdon Trueblood is painfully slow as it's over half an hour of boring exposition before the tarantulas even start to leave the plane, it's dull as there are very few attack scenes & it concentrates on the deeply uninteresting drama surrounding the oranges more than the fact that these tarantulas are killing people & is stupid as it seems to take itself far too seriously & features a silly climax where a guy holds a cage full of wasp's up to a microphone to scare the tarantulas into a comatose state. As I've already said Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a really slow film but I think it needs saying again, for a film that lasts over 90 minutes not very much happens. The character's are clichéd, the hero & his missus, the corrupt official who only cares for money, the local Doctor who tries to warn the town, the annoying kid who becomes involved & the level headed reasonable character who has a plan in every situation. They are all dull, have little personality & there is a brief sub plot about Gloria having an affair which last for about 5 minutes & then completely forgotten about. Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo is a very unfocused & uneven film that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, is it a horror? A drama? A thriller? I suppose it tries to be all three but fails miserably at being any & doesn't satisfy in any regard. The only good thing I can say about it is that tarantulas are cool, it has some reasonably nice location shooting & while it's dull I suppose it's sort of watchable & it's just a shame it doesn't deliver much in the way of entertainment as it definitely had potential.
Director Hagmann does nothing to liven the dull proceedings up, there is no style or visual flair & he fails to create any excitement, atmosphere or tension which is a real killer as far as the film goes. The tarantulas themselves just crawl across things very slowly & we get shot after shot like this which becomes boring as they never do anything else & it's hard to feel scared by something so slow. There is no blood or gore so forget about that. Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo maybe good for one thing though, to stretch the running time out Hagmann pads the film with seemingly endless shots of the orange factory & it's inner workings so if you've ever wanted to know what happens in an (70's) orange factory here's your chance!
Technically the film is alright, nothing special but is professionally made although I thought the music was crap & it annoyed me, basically Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo has cheap made-for-TV film written all over it which is not a good thing. The acting was OK as well but that sentimental ending is embarrassing to watch.
Trantulas: The Deadly Cargo is pretty crap stuff all the way, it has no excitement, it's slow, it's dull & since Arachnophobia (1990) is ten times better & much more widely available there is no need whatsoever to be wasting your time on this. For die-hard killer spider film fans only, if such people exist.