eco-horror | Monster Zone

Starring Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R.A. Dow, Jean Sullivan and Peter MacLean. Written and directed by Jeff Lieberman. Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff, Joseph Beruh, Edgar Lansbury and George Manasse.

Downed power lines in Georgia turn bloodworms into killer critters that begin to chow down on the local rednecks!

He's full of worms! — He’s full of worms!

SQUIRM is a cool example of the 70s trend for eco-horror/animal attack movies. The two young leads (Scardino & Pearcy) are likeable and, between the worm scenes, they try to figure out the identity of a missing skeleton in a SCOOBY-DOO-style mystery-solving fashion.

There are lots of shots of real bloodworms, which look gross when filmed close-up: they really do resemble mini-monsters! In this movie these worms scream too! Yes! Screaming worms! And they like to dangle from the shower as well!

They're in the shower! — They’re in the shower!

There’s some fine early makeup work by Rick Baker to look out for (and Rob Bottin was an uncredited assistant makeup artist on this production too). The ‘worm-face’ scene is great, revelling in shots of a character who has bloodworms crawling beneath the skin of his face! He yanks at the worms, trying to pull them out! These are really neat-looking practical effects! Rick Baker really shows here that he was a makeup effects expert worth keeping an eye on.

The ending is a nice merging of creepy house thriller & critter attack genres. It’s during this finale that the film comes up with its most impactful image; a man becoming submerged in a sea of worms that fill the room! If you don’t like worms you will not like this scene (or the movie)!

This is an enjoyable, wriggly, writhing, creepy-crawly, low budget, well-handled creatures-run-amok B movie that keeps you entertained throughout: it’s squirm-tastic!

Here are some posters…

A proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair

A second proposed design for a UK poster by artist Vic Fair. The actual UK SQUIRM poster was finally drawn by John Stockle

Let’s finish with a close-up shot of one of the bloodworms…

A tarantula bites Shatner's face! — A tarantula bites Shatner’s face!

A veterinarian (William Shatner) and an entomologist (Tiffany Bolling) try to deal with swarms of extra-poisonous tarantulas that grow in number and threaten everyone living around Camp Verde in Arizona.

This is an enjoyable example of the eco-horror genre that flourished in the 70s/early 80s. The B movie story builds its threat level gradually, with the spider attacks focused initially on animals, then individual people, and finally the whole local community.

Shatner plays the hero, Dr. Robert ‘Rack’ Hansen, as an easy-going dude who’s maybe a bit too pushy with women he fancies (the entomologist and even his widowed sister-in-law!), and he is game enough to allow himself to be covered in real tarantulas at one point. His character is initially skeptical that spiders could be responsible for the deaths of local livestock, but he eventually accepts entomologist Diane Ashley’s hypothesis that the tarantulas have changed their habits due to the loss of their usual food supply (thanks to pesticide use). The spiders have now stopped being lone hunters and are forming swarms, attacking larger prey, including humans, using their venom to overpower their victims.

Shatner is swamped in spiders! — Shatner is swamped by spiders!

Hansen finds the body of his sister-in-law

Director John ‘Bud’ Cardos handles the B movie action well, delivering several memorable sequences, including a tarantula attack on a farmer (Woody Strode) in his truck and another spider assault on a pilot (who squeals like a young girl!) that causes him to crash his crop duster plane. In one scene a scared woman uses a handgun to shoot a spider that is crawling on her hand… and she blows her own finger off!

Trying to remove a tarantula from your hand with a gun is not a good idea... — Trying to remove a tarantula from your hand with a gun is not a good idea…

The duster plane pilot has the world's highest-pitched scream! — The duster plane pilot has the world’s highest-pitched scream!

Woody Strode's cocooned body is discovered in his crashed truck — Woody Strode’s cocooned body is discovered in his crashed truck

Cardos also delivers a pretty cool sequence later in the film, where we witness the spiders attacking the townsfolk, with loads of screaming citizens desperately trying to get into the sheriff’s car, only for the lawman to end up being crushed beneath a falling water tower.

KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS reaches a finale similar to THE BIRDS (1963), focusing on a small group of people under siege from the killer creatures in a boarded-up building. The ending (also like the Hitchcock movie) is quite abrupt and leaves the characters’ ultimate fate uncertain, as Hansen discovers that the entire area is now covered in spider webbing.

A decent animal-attack flick, KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS uses its rural locations well and peppers its running time with cool shots of ‘spider hills’, tarantulas dropping out of air vents and victims cocooned in white spider webs.