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Released by: VCI Entertainment
Released on: 6/18/2002
Director: Chris Munger Cast: Eric Mason, Suzanne Ling, Herman Wallner, Patricia Landon, Beverly Eddins, Jay Scott Neal, Rita French
Year: 1972
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The Movie:
Susan, a young girl, is a big fan of spiders. She collects tarantulas, and oddly enough, doesn't have a lot of friends at school, probably because, well, she collects tarantulas; I wouldn't hang out with her either. Anyway, Susan's mother, Martha, is having an affair with her brother-in-law and when Susan discovers that Martha is planning on having her husband knocked off so that she can run off with his brother, she takes matters into her own hands and places one of her lovely pets in her mothers bed while she's sleeping.
Mom wakes up, sees the spider, and has a heart attack, quickly solving that problem. Or so it would seem. Susan appears to have been scarred for life over this, and as she grows older, and seemingly more dysfunctional, she starts using her spiders to avenge misdeeds done to her in the past.
The film is a lot like 'Willard', which came out roughly a year before, and it basically just replaces rats with spiders. Not a particularly original film, Kiss of the Tarantula doesn't really offer a lot of scares either, with too much focus on the characters and not enough focus on what makes a killer spider movie effective (that being the killer spiders).
That being said, there is a definite camp appeal to the film and there are a few creepy parts to it (in particular when a man is chased through a ventilation duct by a group of the eight legged beasties), which make it enjoyable enough to at least be worth a watch.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Kiss of the Tarantula is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85.1 and is enhanced for anamorphic TVs. The film shows some damage as should be expected from a 30-year-old low budget quickie, but colors are pretty decent and black levels are surprisingly good on this transfer. It certainly looks a lot better here than the last time I saw it, which was a few years back on VHS.
The Dolby Digital 2 Channel Mono track is clear and listenable most of the time, but there are a few instances during the film where dialogue is a bit muffled. For the most part though, everything is easy enough to follow despite the hiss and noise evident at times in the background. It's an old low budget film, and this is probably as good as it will ever sound.
VCI has included the films original theatrical trailer as well as trailers for City of the Dead (a.k.a. Horror Hotel), Don't Open The Door, and Horrors of the Black Museum (which apparently was filmed in 'Hypnovision!').
The Final Word:
Kiss of the Tarantula is a fun drive-in film and VCI has done a decent job with the disc.