Synopsis
The movie Kiss of the Tarantula (1975) is an American horror film directed by Chris Munger. The plot revolves around Susan Bradley (Suzanna Ling), a teenager who punishes people who would either kill her mortician father John Bradley (Herman Wallner) or her pet spiders. She has an unnatural affinity for spiders and uses them to seek vengeance on everyone who has ever wronged her and her father. The cast includes Ernesto Macias, Lynne Marta, Beverly Eddins, and Patricia Landon.
The movie Kiss of the Tarantula (1975) is a low-budget horror film that was shot in 1975 but not shown to distributors until “sometime around 1980” and apparently failed to achieve a theatrical release. Its initial commercial release was on VHS in the UK in 1983 by Home Video Productions [1].
Cast
- Ernesto Macias as Walter Bradley
- Suzanna Ling as Susan Bradley
- Herman Wallner as John Bradley
- Patricia Landon as Nancy Drury
- Beverly Eddins as Martha Bradley
- Jay Scott as Bo Richards
- Rebecca Eddins as Susan Bradley at age 10
- Rita French as Joan – Susan’s friend
- W. James Eddins as Sgt. Wes Matthews
- Jared Davis as Dr. Morgan
Trivia
- Kiss of the Tarantula (1975) is considered to be one of the original 72 Video Nasties, but it was not one of the 39 films prosecuted under the Obscene Publications Act 1959, which had been amended in 1983 to include films [1].
- The film was shot at Columbus, Georgia [1].
- Spider expert Jay Scott Neal provided the tarantulas and played the role of Bo Richards [1.]
Reviews
- According to MCBastard’s Mausoleum, “ Kiss of the Tarantula is a fun 70’s drive-in schlocker along the lines of Willard (1971) and Stanley (1972), though not as good as either, but still a solid 70’s gem. .”
- According to Film Blitz, “This is another entry in the cycle started by 1971’s Willard, in which a young Bruce Davison played a social misfit who used rodents to kill those who were mean to him. That begat the following year’s Ben, and eventually this, which in terms of overall plot, basically does a global search-and-replace for “rats” with “spiders. ”
- According to Bands About Movies, “You kind of have to love a movie where a little girl kills an entire VW worth of teenagers at the drive-in. This movie checks almost all the boxes for our site: murderous children and animals gone wild. ”
Cody Meirick on November 5, 2023