William Shatner's '70s Sci-Fi Horror Movie About Spiders Has To Be Seen To Be Believed

There are some movies with premises so bonkers you almost can't believe them, and "Kingdom of the Spiders" falls firmly into that category. William Shatner plays cowboy veterinarian Dr. "Rack" Hansen, who must try to save his rural Arizona town from hundreds of hungry, cannibalistic tarantulas turned super-aggressive by pesticides. It's "Arachnophobia" on steroids, a bonkers 1977 animal attack film that used thousands of real tarantulas in filming, with a wild climax that absolutely covers Shatner in spiders. It truly is the kind of flick that has to be seen to be believed, because there's no way "Kingdom of the Spiders" could ever be made the same way today. 

All of the real spiders in "Kingdom of the Spiders" are the main draw, and director John "Bud" Cardos has plenty of fun ways to show the furry eight-legged freaks in all of their glory. It's also pretty fun to see post-"Star Trek" TV series Shatner in such a different role, though his acting is about the same. If you can handle seeing some very real spider deaths onscreen and just want to see Shatner losing his mind and covered in creepy crawlies, "Kingdom of the Spiders" might be the movie for you.

If you're afraid of spiders, a movie like "Kingdom of the Spiders" is terrifying for obvious reasons, but if you like spiders, it's also pretty scary because you're going to see some die for real onscreen. Producer Igo Kantor told Fangoria magazine that they used 5,000 real tarantulas in the making of the film, kept in separate containers so they wouldn't cannibalize one another offscreen, and you get to see all of those critters in action. The big finale is pretty bleak, as the town essentially gets overrun with super-angry spiders in a condemnation of humanity's encroachment on nature, eventually encasing the entire town in a web. After seeing so many tarantulas get crushed and stepped on, some audiences (myself included) might actually be team spider, which does make the ending hit a bit different.

There are tons of great animal attack movies from the 1970s, but "Kingdom of the Spiders" is definitely among the creepiest. Honestly, it's one of the scariest spider movies ever made because of all of those real spiders, and you almost can't help but feel bad for Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, and all of the other actors that get mobbed by arachnids. Even if you like spiders, hordes of hungry ones driven mad by pesticides are still pretty freaky. Come for Shatner in a cowboy hat, but stay for the spiders. Trust me.

"Kingdom of the Spiders" is currently streaming for free on Tubi.