A disturbed teenage girl unleashes her pet tarantula against her "enemies."A disturbed teenage girl unleashes her pet tarantula against her "enemies."A disturbed teenage girl unleashes her pet tarantula against her "enemies."
Ernesto Macias
- Walter Bradley
- (as Eric Mason)
Jay Scott
- Bo Richards
- (as Jay Scott Neal)
Ron Prather
- Bob Havens
- (as Ronald Prather)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThere are four family members that are in this film. Beverly Eddins (mom) plays the mother, Martha Bradley, W. James Eddins (dad) plays Sgt. Wes Matthews, Rebecca Eddins (older daughter) plays Susan Bradley at age 10, and Susan Eddins (younger daughter) plays Susan at age 5.
- GoofsWhen Susan is lying on her bed reading a book, before her uncle enters the room, she is wearing stockings. Moments later, when her uncle accosts her and they are wrestling on the staircase, she is no longer wearing stockings.
- ConnectionsFeatured in TJ and the All Night Theatre: Kiss of the Tarantula (1981)
Featured review
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.
- kevinolzak
- Jul 6, 2017
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Tarantula
- Filming locations
- Pickwick Drive-In, 1100 W. Alameda Ave., Burbank, California, USA(location of Drive-In scenes)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $200,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 25 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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