Kiss of the Tarantula

Trailer—Kiss of the Tarantula

source: Kiss of the Tarantula

***SPOILERS*** The only release of the now long defunct Cinema-VC Studios with it's star Suzanna Ling's-As spider loving Susan Bradley-first and last movie appearance the film "Kiss of the Tarantula" has to do with Susan getting revenge against those who killed , by stepping on it, her pet tarantula Albert by using a hoard of tarantula spiders that she bred in her basement to do in those that give her and her beloved pet spiders such a hard time. Using the spiders who are in fact really harmless-tarantulas are non-poisonous- but terrifying to look at to do in those that cause her all this trouble. It was Susan's mom Martha, Beverly Eddins, who was her first victim who didn't care much for her pet spiders and was cheating on her undertaker husband John, Herman Wellner, with his brother the town chief of police uncle Walter Bradley, Eric Mason, behind his brother John's back. It's later that Susan took care of those who killed her pet tarantula Albert by dropping a dozen of Albert's or fellow spiders into a car that they were making out in at the local drive-in scaring them all to death or out of their minds and into a coma. It was Bo Havens, Ron Prather, who saw what Susan did who she later dispatched with her tarantulas scaring him to death to keep him from talking to the police. ***SPOILERS*** The final nail in the coffin came to her sex crazed and murderous uncle Walter who's plan all along was to get Susan into the sack with him only to end up getting the shaft by her. That's when he was left immobile, by being pushed down a flight of stairs, by Susan and sealed into an air tight coffin, with one of his victims, at her father's mortuary never to see the light of day, or breathing in any fresh air, again.

1975's "Kiss of the Tarantula" may have been easily overlooked in its day as a low budget drive-in quickie, but in recent years is gaining momentum as a cult item. As a two time solo feature on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater (Nov 22 1980 and Aug 6 1983), I was familiar with it at the time but had long forgotten the details, not surprisingly. The only horror film shot in Columbus, Georgia, it didn't do the kind of business it was expected to, a cast of local unknowns with one Hollywood import, Eric Mason, a TV veteran cast as town sheriff Walter Bradley and uncle of teenage Susan (Suzanne Ling), whose father John (Victor French lookalike Herman Wallner) is a mortician, one reason why she's been shunned by classmates and branded as weird. A more understandable reason is her total devotion to her pet tarantulas, enabling her to kill her abusive and unloving mother, who was plotting with Walter to murder her husband, his own brother. This knowledge is also known to Susan, who grows into pretty womanhood with her uncle's unwanted advances becoming more creepy over time. After classmates accidentally kill one spider in her home, she sets the others loose on them in a parked car at the drive-in (double billing "Dirty Harry" and "Magnum Force"), unable to get out of their vehicle before fatally succumbing. The two people who suspect the truth soon meet their dooms, the first in claustrophobic fashion, the other strangled by the brutal sheriff who knows his niece is responsible but still desires her for himself. The climax is certainly fitting, but leaves the viewer feeling rather empty, no characters to identify with or root for. The central figure of Susan is never developed to any likable degree, glimpses of remorse not enough to register beyond the surface. This is the critical lack preventing audience sympathy for her, unlike better known protagonists such as Willard or Carrie. The film pretty much ends with Susan unsuspected and free to continue, with all her enemies dead, yet this provides no satisfaction for the audience, left only with the pervasiveness of unease. In that way the picture does succeed in its modest approach and rural atmosphere, pretty much the definition of a cult film.

In the distinctly 70s tradition of films such as WILLARD, HOLY Wednesday, STANLEY, and JENNIFER; THE SNAKE GODDESS, this unspectacular independent non-chiller concerns a strange, spider-loving girl who dispatches her little 8-legged friends on killing missions...vengeance against folks who've treated her badly. Lovely Suzanna Ling, apparently in her only film appearance, is quite appealing. Her performance isn't exactly award-winning, but she shows potential, and one wonders what she may have accomplished had she not opted for instant retirement following KISS OF THE TARANTULA(it's hard to blame her, however). It's very likely that you've seen this whole idea brought on before, and with better results(actually, I can't think of a time when it might have been done more poorly). Even as 70s-era drive-in fodder goes, this is a weak, ordinary film devoid of surprises or anything resembling quality craftsmanship. An obscurity, moreless, and justifiably so. 3.5/10

A disturbing movie is great when the best friend you have isn't a human being. And the family is very dysfunctional. Susan Bradley(Suzanna Ling) has a great fascination for spiders which irks her mother, greatly. Her father is a mortician which the wife really hates. She starts seeing his brother who happens to be lawman. Susan uses her pet tarantula on her mother to cause her to have a fatal heart attack. After that, she would use it on anyone who gets in her way. When some of her so-called friends come into the mortuary to give her and her father a hard time, she release her anger on those responsible. Susan would grab a couple of those big spiders, and the scream fest begins. Especially at the drive-in movie. The scare fest was intense when some of the tormentors die in the car, and one ended up in the hospital. Even the smallest and harmless spider would give her a scare. One of the other bad friend gets scared to death at work, while of the friends who died in the drive-in scare gets killed by Susan's creepy uncle. This movie is like "Psycho" meets "Arachniphobia". Of course, that movie doesn't come out for 14 years. This movie is not for the weak. You must be brave to see this. 4 out of 5 stars.

If seeing a man play a creepy, unattractive, hair-hat-wearing corrupt cop who's an incestuous uncle a little too convincingly is your thing, your ship came in and has been at the docks for decades! Otherwise, the movie is just tedium and people hilariously spazzing out and killing themselves over spiders that pose them no real harm.

Susan, the young daughter of a hard-working mortician, has a strange passion for giant spiders, more particularly tarantulas, and engages her hairy friends to get rid of unpleasant persons in her life, like her own mother who plotted to kill her father anyway. By the time she's an attractive teenager, her passion turned into an obsession and it becomes all the more easier to find victims for the "kiss" of her tarantulas. This is a fairy enjoyable spider-feature, especially in case you like 70's drive-in horror. It's quite creepy, too! As long as you've got a bunch of spiders, you don't really need any other form of special effects as these icky critters provide the film with more than enough genuine frights. Unfortunately, there's very little coherence in the script and all the main events seem be juxtaposed without much connection between them. Also, as the story develops, the Susan-character shows more an more resemblance with Stephen King's "Carrie". She gets emotionally unstable, uncertain about herself, seemly all alone against the rest of the world and – of course – disposing of unique powers. Much like the 1978 movie "Jennifer" was a Carrie rip-off with snakes, "Kiss of the Tarantula" is a well-disguised Carrie rip-off with...duh...tarantulas! But then and completely unexpected, the story takes another few twists that don't involve tarantulas at all, and "Kiss of the Tarantula" once again becomes a one-of-a-kind 70's shocker. The ending is downright fantastic! This movie may not be flawless but it sure is creative.

I would say that this was inspired by the success of Willard which came out the previous year but the action is provided by spiders instead of rats. How about the scenes at the drive-in movie theatre? A volkswagen contains four victims who are screaming at the top of their lungs and no one comes to investigate. Were they and the spider woman the only ones at the drive-in? The spider woman spends time fending off the lecherous advances of her uncle, played by Eric Mason, whose acting style reminded me of William Shatner.

I would guess that this uninspiring little film was probably inspired by Stephen King's book 'Carrie', and possibly even Brian De Palma's film adaptation, as while this film was released in the same year; I'm sure that there was more than enough time to write the script and make the film with what was left of it. Spiders are common throughout horror cinema, and big tarantulas are a fear of many people. Adding to this theme is the tried and tested formula of a young female outcast getting her revenge...so really, there's not many excuses for this film not being better. Kiss of the Tarantula hasn't gone on to achieve much acclaim and it's rather unknown, which doesn't surprise me at all. The film focuses on a young girl who likes spiders. Her mother doesn't share this arachnid appreciation, however, and after continually telling her daughter off for playing with spiders, the young girl decides that enough is enough and ends up putting a spider in her mother's bed, which leads to a heart attack. Some years later, the girl is still disturbed; and decides to use the spiders to get revenge on her current enemies. The fact that this film was shot on a low budget is clearly shown through the use of the spiders; as it can't have cost much to round a few up for filming, and this is pretty much all the film has in terms of horror imagery. The spiders are about enough to pull it through, but the film is otherwise lacking; and I find it hard to believe that everyone except the central character is scared of them. The plots surrounding the spiders isn't too interesting either, with only the idea of the young girl being an outcast for her 'hobby' and a plot involving her uncle and her mother having an affair providing distraction from the central theme. The fact that the film is set in a funeral home is a positive element, as mortuaries often provide an interesting location for horror films, and that works well here. As you might expect given the type of film, the acting is largely diabolical, and I'm not surprised that this was the only film role for Suzanna Ling. Director Chris Munger never made another film after this one also, and overall; Kiss of the Tarantula is almost worth seeing, but you wouldn't be missing anything by not watching it.