Mortician's daughter Susan Bradley likes to play with spiders, much to the disgust of her adulterous mother Martha (Beverly Eddins), who is having an affair with Susan's uncle Walter (Eric Mason), the local sheriff. When Susan overhears the cheating couple plotting to kill her father, she releases a tarantula into her mother's bedroom during the night, scaring the woman to death.
Years later, Susan (now played by Suzanna Ling) is still obsessed with spiders, keeping a collection of the hairy horrors in the basement of her father's funeral home. After a group of school bullies start to make her life a misery, Susan once again uses her eight-legged friends to settle the score, and finally gets even with her pervy Uncle Walter.
Scaring a victim to death with spiders isn't the most reliable way to commit a murder—not everyone is arachnophobic, the critters might run away from rather than towards the intended victim, or they might simply get squished—but as unlikely as it might seem, the plan works like a dream for Susan, making this a very silly film indeed. This might not be a problem, but director Chris Munger's handling of the action is so uninspired that the whole thing proves rather dull as well as daft.
As a card-carrying arachnophobe, I should have been on the edge of my seat every time the spiders are unleashed; instead, I was merely bored. Kudos to the actors who let the tarantulas crawl over their face and hands, but it really wasn't worth the effort. For a much more enjoyable '70s spider feature, watch Kingdom of the Spiders—it's got William Shatner in it, for starters
Years later, Susan (now played by Suzanna Ling) is still obsessed with spiders, keeping a collection of the hairy horrors in the basement of her father's funeral home. After a group of school bullies start to make her life a misery, Susan once again uses her eight-legged friends to settle the score, and finally gets even with her pervy Uncle Walter.
Scaring a victim to death with spiders isn't the most reliable way to commit a murder—not everyone is arachnophobic, the critters might run away from rather than towards the intended victim, or they might simply get squished—but as unlikely as it might seem, the plan works like a dream for Susan, making this a very silly film indeed. This might not be a problem, but director Chris Munger's handling of the action is so uninspired that the whole thing proves rather dull as well as daft.
As a card-carrying arachnophobe, I should have been on the edge of my seat every time the spiders are unleashed; instead, I was merely bored. Kudos to the actors who let the tarantulas crawl over their face and hands, but it really wasn't worth the effort. For a much more enjoyable '70s spider feature, watch Kingdom of the Spiders—it's got William Shatner in it, for starters