Great Film overall

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The best scene and the best actor in the entire movie is the cow in the opening scene. That cow was the best and I think the cow should have got an Emmy and a Grammy award for that piece of acting. The cow genuinely acted scared in that opening scene. If anything this movie is worth watching just for the opening scene alone because of the cow. Next to the cow William Shatner is also amazingly funny and plays his part well. If you are afraid of spiders I would not recommend watching the movie because you might not get the comedy. I would recommend watching this movie with an open mind and not expecting a serious horror flick.

One of the "man vs. nature" movies of the '70s and quite well-done. Real spiders were used in the making of the film and this adds to the creepiness of the film. Reportedly 10% of the $500,000 budget went on the cost of the spiders. I'm not convinced animals WEREN'T hurt in the making of the film since we see people spraying them, walking through town on them, and in other places. The film is about a sudden infestation of spiders in a sleepy Arizona town where a calf has been bitten. The owner of the calf, Walter Colby (Woody Strode) doesn't know how the calf died but upon an examination by the local vet Rack Hansen (William Shatner) and a sample of the animal's fluids being sent out to big-city entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling), we learn that a potentially very dangerous spider is responsible for the bite. Soon more mysterious deaths occur and the experts identify a potentially more serious problem.There are many genuine scares here - as I said, in part because the spiders were real but also because director John 'Bud' Carlos paces the movie nicely and allows the tension to ratchet up. We see many close calls and increasingly serious situations. Carlos allows the tension to build up slowly and that ensures that the tension release is greater. Many of the scares come from the inevitability of the spider horrors-that is to say poor decisions lead to the multiplication of spiders. A lot of the dialogue isn't particularly natural-sounding and Rack's roguishness veers into chauvinism when he drives Ashley's car in spite of her protestations. That said, the movie is genuinely scary at times. The failure of the townspeople to identify the spiders at times before they become even more predatory ensures that we will learn that the spiders will become more predatory. It's not brain surgery but it is very enjoyable and would I'm sure be really scary for people with a natural fear of spiders. This one has a slower-creeping ennui than Arachnophobia does but the spiders are more persistent and prevalent and the price they extract is higher.

A rural town is overwhelmed by a plague of deadly tarantulas whose toxicity and ferociousness have been engorged by a cocktail of crop accelerants in another nature turns feral episode. All the usual motifs and roadblocks are wheeled out with little in the way of innovation or originality in the formula applied. Despite the predictable treatment, Shatner is such an undeniably charismatic and affable leading man, and his quirky characterization and apparent chemistry with both the female leads (principally Bolling but also, perhaps understandably, real-life wife Lafferty) makes it hard not to forgive the makers of this shameless rip-off. But while not quite as tongue-in-cheek as his long-time small screen persona, Shatner does offer a few well timed laughs that lighten up proceedings, just when things seem to be getting a bit heavy.An equally likable supporting cast of relaxed characters (notably MacLean and Dressler) band together to combat the nemesis at the local bed and breakfast, but it seems the end is nigh for mankind. Director Cardos handles the subject matter well, bracing the audience for mild shocks and timing the suspense with aplomb.The dialogue incorporates the usual scientific gabble, with the lusty entomologist Bolling (momentarily disrobed, but alas, just a feint glimpse) hypothesizing on the cause of cattle deaths from apparent spider bites, and there's plenty of cheerful banter (some of which sounds improvised) between her and Shatner's rugged, gregarious vet in between grim discoveries. The ending might seem like the easy way out, avoiding the necessary plot complexities to manufacture a tidy outcome, and the country-western music a tad unfitting, still in all, it's agreeably light and entertaining, and distinguished by a likable cast of laid back larrikins.

No pun intended btw with the summary line. And I'm sure not everyone will like the ending. But I think it's almost the only way to end this. William Shatner is really great in this and you can feel him, playing the ridiculousness of the script. There are even scenes, were he "fights" with Spiders, were you could be excused thinking this was directed by Mr. Ed Wood.But of course this does has something to say and since the spiders were real (well at least most, maybe they a few plastic one thrown into the mix), this also feels real. Which must have been good and bad for the actors. Good because they didn't need a great motivation to act scared and bad ... because some actually must have been genuinely scared!Having said that, the movie does not have a big budget (I even read this might have been initially made for TV, although I'm not sure if that's true) and the dialog is off quite a few times. If that doesn't matter much to you, you will get a really quite good, eerie and scary horror movie.