Kiss of the Tarantula

1976 "So silent. So deadly. So final."
4.4| 1h25m| PG| en
Details

A disturbed teenage girl unleashes her pet tarantula against her "enemies."

Director

Producted By

Cinema-Vu

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Also starring Ron Prather

Reviews

Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
BA_Harrison Mortician's daughter Susan Bradley likes to play with spiders, much to the disgust of her adulterous mother Martha (Beverly Eddins), who is having an affair with Susan's uncle Walter (Eric Mason), the local sheriff. When Susan overhears the cheating couple plotting to kill her father, she releases a tarantula into her mother's bedroom during the night, scaring the woman to death.Years later, Susan (now played by Suzanna Ling) is still obsessed with spiders, keeping a collection of the hairy horrors in the basement of her father's funeral home. After a group of school bullies start to make her life a misery, Susan once again uses her eight-legged friends to settle the score, and finally gets even with her pervy Uncle Walter.Scaring a victim to death with spiders isn't the most reliable way to commit a murder—not everyone is arachnophobic, the critters might run away from rather than towards the intended victim, or they might simply get squished—but as unlikely as it might seem, the plan works like a dream for Susan, making this a very silly film indeed. This might not be a problem, but director Chris Munger's handling of the action is so uninspired that the whole thing proves rather dull as well as daft.As a card-carrying arachnophobe, I should have been on the edge of my seat every time the spiders are unleashed; instead, I was merely bored. Kudos to the actors who let the tarantulas crawl over their face and hands, but it really wasn't worth the effort. For a much more enjoyable '70s spider feature, watch Kingdom of the Spiders—it's got William Shatner in it, for starters
PeterMitchell-506-564364 A teenage outcast, unleashes her revenge, utilizing her eight legged friends, in this slow moving and forgettable horror, which will leave you waiting some for what little gore there is to happen. I mean how much harm can tarantula's do. To that small minority of people who love spiders and revenge, we should have that small minority of people watch this. Given that said, it's not a badly made flick, where even a "Hot Connections" star shows up as one of Susan's peers, who gets his serve at a drive in. He was falsely coming onto her, then entrapping her as to find out how his friends were killed. Bad mistake as our Susan who slightly resembles Carrie, again unleashes her pets. Another guy gets it in an air duct. Our Susan's got other problems. Her father matter of fact owns a funeral parlor where the wife and the bastard of an uncle are getting it on. Again, enter Susan. The opening always stays with me of Susan smiling the sweetest of smiles (too sweet) to camera. This is used in the last shot too, where Susan herself says "I love happy endings". Okay horror fare, but nothing to write home about.
Coventry 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.
EyeAskance 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