Diner Food for the Soul and "Kingdom of the Spiders"

It is my firm belief that a forum such as the Spectral Symposium is capable of exploring things much beyond mere classroom ruminations on textbook materials. It is a resting point on a long journey through the fantastic genre of horror. A place to share ideas about the important issues that address our genre. A salon? Not quite… a coffee shop? I would hope not. We are not discussing matters of poetry, Russian playwrights, or any transcendent literature. We are talking about the horror genre, a genre largely without pretense. Connoisseurs of horror do not require interwoven plots, multidimensional character development, or socially relevant storylines. They (we) are satisfied with having our scary monsters, our suspenseful atmospheres, and our stirring conflicts (maybe a complex discovery plot now and then).Such an honest enjoyment requires an honest atmosphere that cannot be attained at a coffee shop or salon (the French Revolution kind, not the Paul Mitchell kind). Perhaps the Symposium is best thought of as a truck stop. A truck stop for weary travellers of the phantasmagorical, as it were. As any good truck stop would do, I think the symposium should serve up healthy doses of diner food for the soul, as only the horror genre can produce.

The first heaping helpful of cheesy horror goodness I would like to serve to you all is the 1977 horror classic “Kingdom of the Spiders” starring Canadian human dynamo William Shatner as Dr. ‘Rack’ Hanson, a dashing ladies’ man of a veterinarian who is called in to a small Arizona town to investigate the mysterious deaths of some local farm animals. After some basic observations by Hanson (he seems too distracted with his latest conquest to focus on the task at hand) it becomes obvious that the deaths are caused by aggressive Tarantula attacks. Before Rack can put two and two together, the town is overrun with 8 legged freaks!
The film fits nicely into the historical character of 1970’s horror cinema, reflecting a clear environmentalist message (the tarantulas are being driven mad by the use of crop dusters and insecticides). Many other horror films of this period carried similar messages (see: Night of the Lepus, Silent Running, Frogs).
The film opens with a serene panorama of the small town of Verde Valley (complete with a country music song, ‘Peaceful Verde Valley’, written just for the movie!). All is not well, however, in peaceful Verde Valley, when farmer Colby’s calves are getting sick for no apparent reason. Rack’s thorough investigation (wedged in between beer binges) comes up with nothing, and the samples are sent away to Flagstaff for further investigation.

Enter the ‘big city’ scientist Diane Ashley, who drives into Peaceful Verde Valley with her convertible, sunglasses, and fancy clothes. The people of Verde Valley are quite easily intimidated by outsiders (especially spiders, but well-dressed and intelligent women are just as foreign to their town) and keep Ashley at a distance. Well, everybody except William Shatner (designating William Shatner as any character other than William Shatner is a pointless endeavor), who immediately descends upon Ashley in a quite aggressive manner. After paying his deceased brother’s widow a (rather creepy) visit, Shatner returns to work and discovers that the animals were dying from intense doses of spider venom!

Ashley and Shatner rush back to the farm, only to discover that the spiders have begun forming ‘hills’ and have begun forming themselves together, as if in an assault formation. Before you can yell “Khan!”, all hell breaks loose in peaceful Verde Valley: trucks begin crashing, crop dusters fall out of the sky, gas stations are overrun, police cars mobbed by frantic people. As if things could not get worse, people are being turned into cocooned mummies! Shatner and crew retreat to a hotel to wage final battle against the monsters. It’s an Arizona Hillbilly Spider Hell-pocalypse!
I cannot spoil the climactic third act, but suffice it to say, it is worth the price of admission (which should be somewhere between one and five cents).
Carroll would have trouble with this film being in the horror genre, though I would contend it fits his deccription. The basic element, monsters, are represented by the spiders (though I would contend that the residents of Verde Valley are themselves monsters..). Obviously, these are not your father’s tarantulas; capable of plotted attack, cocooning human beings, and being able to shut off the power. Such cognitive ability would only be found in a monster spider. The spiders are fearsome and disgusting, and they generate a feeling of physical agitation. (the impurity element is sufficiently covered by Shatner’s courtship of Dr. Ashley…)

Go forth, and watch “Kingdom of the Spiders”! It is a true classic of human effort, and shows how horrifying movies can still be horrible.

(this is Robert, by the way)