Kiss of the Tarantula

Rating:
Summary: Even people scarred of spiders will sleep after this one
Review: What if...you took the movie "Willard," changed the main character from a boy into a girl, changed the pets from rats to snakes, and avoid having Michael Jackson sing a love song to vermin? Well, the result would be "Kiss of the Tarantula," a 1975 low budget bomb that despite the decent title has nothing of value to offer to horror movie fans. In her only screen appearance (never a good sign) Susanna Ling plays Susan Bradley, the daughter of a mortuary owner who grows up with a strange affection for tarantulas. As a teenager she will use her pets to take care of some of her snotty classmates, but there is an abhorrent attempt to evoke even more sympathy on our parts for Susan by having her have to fend off the advances of her uncle. Even the best scene of terror in this film, with tarantulas swarming after a man in an air duct, sounds better than the execution in this film from director Chris Munger, who made one more B-Movie, "Black Starlet," before having to get a real job. Filmed around Columbus, Georgia, "Kiss of the Tarantula" is one of those B-movies made for the drive-in crowd and may well fall within the parameters of "so bad its good" for some viewers, but my opinion is not that high. Even if you suffer from arachnaphobia, you still might not be bothered by this one. Oh, this film was also known as "Shudder," which would be a more appropriate title for this film, albeit as an example of unintentional irony.

Rating:
Summary: Even people scarred of spiders will sleep after this one
Review: What if...you took the movie "Willard," changed the main character from a boy into a girl, changed the pets from rats to snakes, and avoid having Michael Jackson sing a love song to vermin? Well, the result would be "Kiss of the Tarantula," a 1975 low budget bomb that despite the decent title has nothing of value to offer to horror movie fans. In her only screen appearance (never a good sign) Susanna Ling plays Susan Bradley, the daughter of a mortuary owner who grows up with a strange affection for tarantulas. As a teenager she will use her pets to take care of some of her snotty classmates, but there is an abhorrent attempt to evoke even more sympathy on our parts for Susan by having her have to fend off the advances of her uncle. Even the best scene of terror in this film, with tarantulas swarming after a man in an air duct, sounds better than the execution in this film from director Chris Munger, who made one more B-Movie, "Black Starlet," before having to get a real job. Filmed around Columbus, Georgia, "Kiss of the Tarantula" is one of those B-movies made for the drive-in crowd and may well fall within the parameters of "so bad its good" for some viewers, but my opinion is not that high. Even if you suffer from arachnaphobia, you still might not be bothered by this one. Oh, this film was also known as "Shudder," which would be a more appropriate title for this film, albeit as an example of unintentional irony.