Directed by John “Bud” Cardos
Written by Alan Caillou and Richard Robinson
Starring William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Altovise Davis, Lieux Dressler, David McLean, Natasha Ryan and Marcy Lafferty
USA, 1977
For the last few years I’ve attended the Hollywood Theater’s All Night Horror Movie Marathon and included the movies shown there in Horrorfest. This year is no different, starting with this creature feature starring one of my favorites, William Shatner.
Shatner stars as a vet for farm animals out in the deserts of Arizona. When animals mysteriously turn up dead, an entymologist (Tiffany Bolling) shows up to announce what we have here is a spider problem. Tarantulas, specifically, and lots of them. For some reason they’ve given up on their docile ways and decided to turn on livestock – and eventually humans! It's not long before Shatner and a band of spider survivors are holed up in a cabin, surrounded on all sides by creepy crawly terrors.
This was a rollicking good time, mostly thanks to Shatner’s performance in the lead as a beer guzzling, womanizing vet, but also thanks to the great soundtrack by Dorsey Burnette. Burnette contributes multiple songs to the movie but the standout is “Peaceful Verde Valley”, the song that plays over the opening and closing credits. That song is worth the price of admission alone.
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