I'd never heard of this weird little 70's horror flick until I picked it up on a double-feature disc with the Piper Laurie vehicle RUBY and I thought it was actually way better than the main feature. As a lover of killer spiders in films and the owner of a pet tarantula it was hard not to love this story of a gal who lives in a mortuary and gets revenge on her shitty dysfunctional family and her horrible friends using an army of her pet tarantulas. Where you might expect a straight ahead animals-run-amok type of a film this one throws in murder, incest, coffin antics and a general creepy feeling over everything. The plot sorta rips off WILLARD except with a chick and spiders and lots of added elements. There's also a drive-in scene where DIRTY HARRY and MAGNUM FORCE are playing which would be a pretty cool night at the movies(at least until a carload of kids start freaking out over some awesome-looking spiders and inadvertently kill each other in a ridiculous display of pussy-ness) While this is only rated-PG and there's not really any blood or gore to speak of I think it's messed-up enough for lovers of the strange and bizarre to appreciate it.
I hate this horrible movie. Theres scarcely a decent character in it. The girl is a cruel monster and her mother is nasty and her uncle is a sleazy pervert and her father who is the undertaker/mortician is myopic and stupid and has no clue that his own daughter is doing nearly all of the killing right under his nose. The tarantulas in the movie while horrible arent deadly to people. Their venom is similar to a bee sting. The Mexican Red Knee Tarantula rarely bites people. The people die from fright and from heart attacks when the spiders crawl on them. The evil girls sleazy uncle does not die from spiders. His fate is even more horrific. The girl kills him by putting him inside an airtight coffin inside the funeral home/mortuary. She puts two other corpses on top of him before shutting the lid. The man is suffocated to death. Being buried alive or premature burial is the ultimate in horror. Suffocation and claustrophobia. Its horrific beyond imagining. The girl is a cruel sadistic monster. The idiot undertaker father shows up and has no clue that his own brother is being murdered right under his nose. The uncle is also an evil person who tried to kill the girls father and who killed a schoolmate who knew about Susans role in the deaths caused at the drive in. The lecherous uncle killed the schoolmate to cover up Susans crimes because he wants to have an affair with Susan! Its sick and sleazy but still dont put the guy in a coffin. Thats just way too cruel. Thats unimaginably cruel. I think one has to be unimaginably cruel and evil to bury someone alive. Susan is an evil monster. This movie is like a combination of Willard Kingdom of the Spiders and Premature Burial. The date of this movie is also unknown. Various sources say it was made in 1972 1974 1975 1976 and 1977. Suzanne Ling plays the evil cruel cold blooded murderer. Eric Mason plays the unfortunate uncle who is buried alive in a coffin. Hopefully they gave him an airtube to breathe and hopefully they let him out quickly. I wouldnt submerge myself alive in one of those cursed coffins for all the money in the world. Coffins are for the dead. Theyre not for the living. So we have large venomous biting spiders a funeral home/mortuary and sleazy sinister characters. Its horrible. The film exudes death as does its funeral home setting. This is a horrible movie. This is something that should never have been made. Its HORRIBLE.
ReplyDeleteWell Mr. Anonymous, if that's really your name, thanks for your comments but I think you're completely wrong. I thought the girl was justified in all of her actions. Like you pointed out, just about everyone besides her is a horrible person who deserves their fate. The uncle who gets buried alive is a child-molesting asshole. Not sure how you can stick up for someone like that. Your paragraph makes me want to watch it again right now. I wish there were a billion more movies just like this one!!
ReplyDeleteAnd coffins are also for vampires and/or other goth types.
Dear Stevie B we may disagree but we both like movies. This movie Kiss of the Tarantula has come out on DVD. Yes its true that the mother and the teenage punks and the sleazy uncle are all evil. The uncle character is disturbing as he is a relative of Susan and a policeman and that makes him more of a sleaze. Plus he killed a girl who knew about Susans crimes to cover up Susans crimes in order to have an affair with her. And he is responsible for Susan killing her mother. Its a dysfunctional family. There isnt really any likeable character in this movie. The buried alive scene is horrific. Unimaginable horror. Suffocation and claustrophobia. Thats even worse than being bitten by venomous spiders. Edgar Allan Poe was horrified at the possibility of premature burial. Premature burial occured from the Middle Ages to the 1800s. It doesnt have to be a coffin. Its possible to be buried alive in small cellars small attics chimneys refrigerators closets bomb shelters a hole in the ground a crawlspace etc. Any enclosed space where its difficult or impossible to breaathe can become a torture chamber and a death trap. Being stuck in vaults mines and tunnels is also horrific. Its a dangerous and frightening world. Suzanne Ling who played Susan has not done other movies. Her character is sinister. She decides who lives and who dies. Im interested in another kind of movie that concerns itself with the supernatural such as Ovidio Assonitis Beyond the Door which is also known as The Devil Inside and Chi Sei. A San Francisco woman is giving birth to a demonic baby and becomes possesed as a result of dabbling in a Satanic ritual years earlier with a man played by actor Richard Johnson. Juliet Mills plays the demon possessed woman. The music by Franco Micalizzi is awesome. The scene where the childrens dolls and toys come to life is also awesome. The film says that the Devil and demons are real and work invisibly to wreak destruction in the lives of people and there are real dangers in dabbling with Satanic rituals. The film shows the pervasiveness of evil in the world and the helplessness of human beings grappling with it. In this case its supernatural evil. This movie is scary. Its on DVD with members of the cast reminiscing. Thank you for reading.
ReplyDeleteI still don't understand how you call a little girl who's just defending herself against rapists, child-molesters and murderers a monster but OK. I guess your view of justice is quite a bit different than mine.
ReplyDeleteI've seen BEYOND THE DOOR and BEYOND THE DOOR II wasn't very impressed by either of them. Their basically crappy Italian rip-offs of ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE EXORCIST.
Dear Stevie the girl has a right to defend herself against the evil people in her life. Its just the manner of how she does it that makes her cruel. She should have gone to the police for help and not to her sleazy uncle policeman. And she should have gone to child custody. Putting someone in a coffin is cruel and unusual punishment even if its a sleazeball like her uncle. I guess she used whatever method available. In a funeral home/mortuary there are plenty of coffins available and in her case she possessed many large spiders as her weapons. Beyond the Door is of interest as its about the supernatural and some of it is actually profound such as the concepts of time travel and being suspended in time. Richard Johnson as the Satanist is suspended in time for the last 10 years as he is to deliver the baby of demon possessed Juliet Mills. Producer Ovidio Assonitis has made a remake to the original Beyond the Door. It will come out any day. The actors are different from the original 1974 Beyond the Door. Beyond the Door shows that evil abounds in the world and theres a realm of invisible evil ruled by Satan and demons. The novel Legion and the movie based on it Exorcist 3-Legion delves more deeply into the problem of evil and suffering in the world and asks the hard questions of why God allows it. There arent many movies which do this. The movie Carrie has been remade a third time. Rosemarys Baby was going to be remade but the project was dropped. Thank you for allowing me to write. Youtube has hard to find movies. With the Internet we can watch our favorite movies.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the girl in KISS OF THE TARANTULA didn't take your advice or it would have been a very boring film.
ReplyDeleteI'm not generally a fan of remakes and if the original is terrible it seems like an even worse idea but I'm no filmmaker so what do I know?
Stevie B yes your right it would have been a boring movie. Ive read that Kiss of the Tarantula was filmed in December of 1974. Other sources say 1972 1975 1976 1977. Why the discrepancy in dates is a mystery. The first time I saw it was in December 1977. Channel 9 showed it two more times in 1985 and 1986 and channel 20 showed in 1987. The spiders used in the movie are Mexican Red Knee Tarantulas which have a mild venom and which rarely bite people. Some other kinds of Tarantulas from India China Africa Thailand and Australia have very painful bites and causes serious sickness. The Thailand Black Tarantula is very bad tempered and bites readily. Large spiders have been in horror movies for a long time. Kiss of the Tarantula is somewhat similar to Frogs which starred Ray Milland in a Florida swamp. Willard Ben and Stanley are also similar to Kiss of the Tarantula. Carrie has been compared to Kiss of the Tarantula. In the 70s animals on the attack and Nature getting revenge on humans were popular as movies. I once got a Tarantula. It was a Haitian Brown Tarantula which are generally bad tempered and which have a painful bite. Its aggression scared me and I returned it back to the pet store in a few days. I should have gotten a mellow species like the Mexican Red Knee or the Pink Zebra Beauty. Theyre mellow enough to hold. One source says Kiss of the Tarantula influenced movies such as Friday the 13th as it shows the main characters childhood and adulthood and the theme is vengeance by killing. Jason kills with knives and with his bare hands while Susan kills with her pet spiders and with coffins at her funeral home/mortuary. Kiss of the Tarantula is also known as Shudder and Scream. Thanks for reading.
ReplyDeleteI own a Chilean rose tarantula and it is very docile and has never tried to bite me or act aggressive in any way.
ReplyDeleteI see you live somewhere in the New York area. I caught lots of crazy movies on channel 9 in NY and channel 20 on UHF from Connecticut in the late 70's early 80's era.
STANLEY is another one of my favorite killer animal flicks.