# Kingdom of the Spiders
**Kingdom of the Spiders** is a 1977 American horror and science-fiction film directed by John "Bud" Cardos, in which tarantulas whose food supply has been destroyed by pesticides invade a small Arizona town. It stars [William Shatner](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-shatner) as veterinarian Dr. Robert "Rack" Hansen, with Tiffany Bolling as the entomologist Diane Ashley and [Woody Strode](https://www.edgepedia.org/woody-strode) as rancher Walter Colby.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kingdom_of_the_spiders)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | 12 August 1977 (United States), distributed by Dimension Pictures; MPAA rating PG[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) |
| Director and writers | John "Bud" Cardos; screenplay by Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou, from an original story by Jeffrey M. Sneller and Stephen Lodge[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) |
| Production | Arachnid Productions, Ltd.; filmed 4 April to mid-April 1977 in Sedona and Camp Verde, Arizona[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) |
| Running time | 94 minutes per the AFI Catalog; other listings give 97 minutes, and the BBFC classified a cut 87-minute version for the UK[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) • [3](https://kinolorber.com/film/kingdom-of-the-spiders) • [4](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/kingdom-of-the-spiders-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yoti2odm) |
| Real spiders | Producer Igo Kantor paid spider wrangler Jim Brockett $10 per spider to transport tarantulas to the location; reviews cite roughly 5,000 tarantulas used[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kingdom_of_the_spiders) |
| Premise | DDT and other insecticides deplete the desert tarantulas' food supply, so the normally cannibalistic spiders begin acting in concert and attacking livestock and people[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) • [5](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/01/20/kingdom-of-the-spiders-dvd-review/) |
| Reception | 55% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (11 reviews) and 37% on the audience Popcornmeter from more than 2,500 ratings[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kingdom_of_the_spiders) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
On the Camp Verde, Arizona, ranch of Walter Colby, a prize calf comes down with a mysterious illness and dies despite the efforts of local veterinarian Dr. Robert "Rack" Hansen. Hansen sends blood samples to a lab in Flagstaff, and entomologist Diane Ashley of Arizona State University arrives with the results: the animal was killed by spider venom. Ashley is at first dubious that spiders could kill so large an animal, then concludes hundreds may have been involved; Colby leads her to a spider hill holding hundreds, possibly thousands, of tarantulas. She is struck that the normally cannibalistic arachnids are colonizing and cooperating.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS)
Ashley works out the cause: DDT and other insecticides are diminishing the spiders' natural food supply and forcing them to become more aggressive. Hansen and Colby burn the spider hill, but a spider hidden in Colby's truck causes a fatal crash, and the sheriff finds twenty to thirty more hills nearby. The mayor orders pesticide sprayed over the area without state approval; the crop-dusting pilot, his cockpit filling with spiders, crashes into the town's gasoline station. As the town is overrun, a small group including Hansen, Ashley, and Hansen's niece Linda takes refuge in the Washburn Lodge, holding the spiders back with fire extinguishers and a fireplace fire. Hansen is bitten while checking the basement circuit breakers, and Ashley neutralizes the venom and nurses him through the night. At daybreak the lodge is found covered by a thick cocoon, and the entire town lies still and webbed over.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS)
The Science Fiction Encyclopedia describes the ending, which echoes Hitchcock's *The Birds* (1963), as offering "a genuine minatory thrill with its vision of a whole town cocooned in spider-silk, its occupants now preserved as food."[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/kingdom_of_the_spiders)
## Production
The project began in the early 1970s when co-story writer Jeffrey Sneller and a friend, discussing what frightened them most, settled on spiders, small ones rather than giant ones. They wrote a script originally titled *The Spiders*; interest lapsed until Sneller showed it to producer Igo Kantor, who liked it. The picture was filmed in Camp Verde and [Sedona, Arizona](https://www.edgepedia.org/sedona-arizona), in early 1977 and released later that year.[7](https://www.fictionhousepress.com/kos.htm) [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) ran from 4 April to mid-April 1977, after earlier trade reports had announced a 21 March start.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS)
**Real tarantulas carried the film's menace.** Rather than use a giant irradiated spider in the manner of *Earth vs. the Spider* (1958) or *The Giant Spider Invasion* (1975), co-writer Stephen Lodge explained that the filmmakers wanted to keep the arachnids life-size to bolster realism.[5](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/01/20/kingdom-of-the-spiders-dvd-review/) A 23 May 1977 *People* article reported that Kantor paid spider wrangler Jim Brockett $10 per spider to transport tarantulas to the Camp Verde location.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) Reviewers commonly put the number of spiders used at about 5,000.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kingdom_of_the_spiders) Shatner told the *Montreal Gazette* while resting in his trailer near Camp Verde that working with the spider horde was a constant source of terror.[8](https://cinemaretro.com/index.php?%2Farchives%2F12802-REVIEW-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS-1977-STARRING-WILLIAM-SHATNER%3B-KINO-LORBER-BLU-RAY-SPECIAL-EDITION.html=) By contrast, IMDb trivia records that Tiffany Bolling was cast as the female lead because she was the only actress who auditioned without qualms about working with the spiders.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076271/)
The production carried modest credentials: the AFI credits cinematographer John Morrill and editors [Steven Zaillian](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-zaillian) and Igo Kantor, and lists Jim Mitchum as having been reported cast in a starring role in January 1977 although he does not appear in the finished film.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS) Cinema Retro notes it was the first Dimension Pictures production to have a one-million-dollar budget.[8](https://cinemaretro.com/index.php?%2Farchives%2F12802-REVIEW-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS-1977-STARRING-WILLIAM-SHATNER%3B-KINO-LORBER-BLU-RAY-SPECIAL-EDITION.html=)
## Release and reception
Dimension Pictures planned a national release for 12 August 1977; the film opened in [Louisville, Kentucky](https://www.edgepedia.org/louisville-kentucky), on that date, and in Los Angeles on 27 July 1978. A June 1977 Variety brief announced a 150-theater opening in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, though an August box-office report noted a nine-theater "showcase" run in Kentucky. The 16 November 1977 *Hollywood Reporter* praised the film for "an intelligent script, fine acting, and outstanding special effects."[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS)
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 55% Tomatometer from 11 critics and a 37% audience score from more than 2,500 ratings.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kingdom_of_the_spiders) Critics have generally treated it as a competent example of the 1970s "nature run amok" cycle that followed *Jaws* (1975). The Washington Post called it "deliciously silly" camp fun whose ecological premise is addressed in one scene and then dropped.[5](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/01/20/kingdom-of-the-spiders-dvd-review/) The Science Fiction Encyclopedia ranks it among the better films of the revenge-of-Nature cycle, noting that the normal-size spiders are believable and the film is crisply made.[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/kingdom_of_the_spiders) A Blu-ray review at The Digital Bits judges it superior to bigger-budgeted entries such as [Irwin Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/irwin-allen)'s *The Swarm* (1978) and the later *Arachnophobia* (1990), praising its methodical tension-building and unusually fleshed-out characters.[10](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/kingdom-spiders-kino-2024-bd)
## Legacy
The film has remained in circulation as a late-night favorite and has been restored on home video, including a Kino Lorber special edition with three commentary tracks and interviews with Bolling and co-writer Lodge.[7](https://www.fictionhousepress.com/kos.htm) • [10](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/kingdom-spiders-kino-2024-bd) A novelization by Bernhardt J. Hurwood appeared in 1977.[6](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/kingdom_of_the_spiders) Shatner said in a DVD interview that a sequel was planned after the film did well at the box office on original release, though none was made.[11](https://www.popretrorama.com/dvd-review-kingdom-of-the-spiders/) The movie is frequently cited alongside other 1970s killer-spider pictures such as *The Giant Spider Invasion* (1975), *Curse of the Black Widow* (1977), and *Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo* (1977), of which the EOFFTV review calls it the best.[12](https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/kingdom-of-the-spiders-1977/)
## References
1. [Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/56094-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS)
2. [Kingdom of the Spiders, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kingdom_of_the_spiders)
3. [Kingdom of the Spiders (Special Edition), Kino Lorber](https://kinolorber.com/film/kingdom-of-the-spiders)
4. [Kingdom of the Spiders, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/kingdom-of-the-spiders-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0yoti2odm)
5. [Arachnophilia: 'Kingdom of the Spiders' on DVD, The Washington Post (2010)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2010/01/20/kingdom-of-the-spiders-dvd-review/)
6. [Kingdom of the Spiders, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction](https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/kingdom_of_the_spiders)
7. [Behind the Scenes - Kingdom of the Spiders, Fiction House Press](https://www.fictionhousepress.com/kos.htm)
8. [Review: Kingdom of the Spiders (1977); Kino Lorber Blu-ray Special Edition, Cinema Retro](https://cinemaretro.com/index.php?%2Farchives%2F12802-REVIEW-KINGDOM-OF-THE-SPIDERS-1977-STARRING-WILLIAM-SHATNER%3B-KINO-LORBER-BLU-RAY-SPECIAL-EDITION.html=)
9. [Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076271/)
10. [Kingdom of the Spiders (Blu-ray Review), The Digital Bits (2024)](https://thedigitalbits.com/reviews/item/kingdom-spiders-kino-2024-bd)
11. [DVD Review: Kingdom of the Spiders, Popretrorama](https://www.popretrorama.com/dvd-review-kingdom-of-the-spiders/)
12. [Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), The EOFFTV Review (2020)](https://eofftvreview.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/kingdom-of-the-spiders-1977/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Animals › Invertebrates › Arthropods › Arachnids › Spiders › Spiders and humans › Fictional spiders in media › Spider horror and monster films*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license