Kingdom of the Spiders is a 1977 American science fiction horror film directed by John "Bud" Cardos and produced by Igo Kantor and Jeffrey M. Sneller. The screenplay is credited to Richard Robinson and Alan Caillou, from an original story by Sneller and Stephen Lodge. The film was released by Dimension Pictures (not to be confused with the distributor Dimension Films). It stars William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler, and Altovise Davis. The film is one of the better-remembered entries in the "nature on the rampage" subgenre of science fiction/horror films in the 1970s, due in part to its memorable scenes of people and animals being attacked by tarantulas, its availability on home video and airing on cable television, particularly on the USA Network, but primarily because of Shatner's starring role. Plot Dr. Robert "Rack" Hansen, a veterinarian in rural Verde Valley, Arizona, receives an urgent call from local farmer Walter Colby. Colby is upset because his prize calf is sick for no apparent reason. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterward. Hansen cannot explain what made the animal go ill so quickly, but sends samples of the calf's blood to a university lab in Flagstaff. Diane Ashley, an arachnologist, arrives to tell Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider venom, which Hansen greets with skepticism. Undaunted, Ashley tells him that she wishes to examine the carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby's farm. Moments after they arrive, Colby's wife, Birch, discovers their dog is dead; Ashley discovers that it also died from a massive injection of spider venom. Hansen is incredulous, until Colby states that he recently found a massive "spider hill" on a back section of his farmland. He takes Hansen and Ashley to the hill, which is covered with tarantulas. Ashley theorizes that the tarantulas are converging due to the heavy use of pesticides, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders, normally cannibalistic of each other, are combining to attack and eat larger animals. Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm to burn the spider hill. As the scientists and the Colbys walk past a barn, a bull, attacked by tarantulas, stampedes out. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, but many of the spiders escape using a distant tunnel. Colby