SYNOPSICS
Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) is a English movie. Stuart Hagmann has directed this movie. Claude Akins,Charles Frank,Deborah Winters,Bert Remsen are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1977. Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) is considered one of the best Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
An airplane carring coffee beans from South America has some unpleasant stowaways: a hoard of tarantulas which overcome the pilots as the airplane is flying over an orange-producing town in California. The airplane crashes, and the unlucky inhabitants of the town release the poisonous spiders into their midst. Once the town's officials discover that the tarantulas are responsible for several deaths, the tarantulas have already descended upon the town's only orange-processing factory. The town's citizens risk their lives to remove the tarantulas from the factory while the poisonous pests are rendered motionless by the transmitted sound of buzzing bees.
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Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) Reviews
Not mind blowing, but solid
I have to admit, I was surprised by this movie. I bought it as part of a 2 DVD set with "Ants" for $5. Needless to say, I was expecting a "so bad it's good" movie along the lines of "Rockula". Instead, I found an interesting, if unspectacular... thriller? Horror movie? I really don't know what this is. It's not terribly scary, and the only really tense moments come at opposite ends of the film. Nevertheless, this is a good movie. It has a solid script, fairly god acting, (usually) and great music from Mundell Lowe. That's not to say it doesn't have it's flaws. The "cute kid" of the movie is less than competent, and I'm being nice. It also feels like the director doesn't use his full potential during the entire movie. During the climax, we see that he is a genuinely good director, capable of injecting tension into a scene, but just seems to be coasting through most of the movie. Hopefully, his other movies draw on that potential.
There's a spider in my coffee
A plane carrying a payload of Ecuadorian coffee beans bound for the US, plunges into a field in the struggling town of Finleyville. When rescuers discover that two survivors appear to be afflicted by a deadly plague-like condition, the townspeople are quick to respond to the threat. It takes the tenacity of local GP (Hingle) and occupation unknown jack-of-all trades (Frank) and his girlfriend (Winters) to determine that the mysterious deaths are attributed to a particularly toxic breed of Tarantulas that have stowed away on the doomed flight. Director Haggman applies a very matter-of-fact treatment to this above average thriller, with great attention to detail and a well paced continuity that builds to a satisfying climax. A capable cast of familiar faces portray likable characters, who band together to solve their own problems and save the town from socioeconomic devastation, proving that necessity is the mother of all invention. Frank is an affable leading man well supported by durable character actors like Akins, Hingle and Remsen in sizeable supporting roles. John Harkins also has a key cameo identifying the aggressive arachnids as the most venomous of their species, sending the town into a virtual state of emergency. Mature, intelligent dialogue is sometimes too functional, but realistic and well delivered. It's just a pity that the rather vapid climax wasn't more rousing, as the impetus was there throughout the movie for a satisfying resolution. There's an absence of smoke and mirrors to this small screen production that rejects the temptation to sensationalise the subject matter, focusing instead on the logical and convincing storytelling that saw this minor matinée nominated for two Emmy awards. Overall, while there's the obvious constraints of a television scale, and a curiously inapt jazz soundtrack bookends, this remains a taut, mature, well conceived little critter of a spider movie, and well worth a look.
Like ketchup, its slow, but its not good
I saw this thing when I was eleven, so I related most to Matthew Laborteaux who was not yet on Little House on the Prairie. I rooted for him when he was teasing the spider with a stick and was dismayed when he met his fate. My sister, who hates spiders, jumped constantly during this thing. I had to argue with my brother, who wanted to watch 'Charlies Angels in Hawaii' or something. I eventually saw this movie tho. Like some bad influence from Irwin Allen, the spiders, which were all over the small town, end up in the warehouse with the produce, the town's main source of income and major export. A truly strange plan for killing the spiders is hampered by a bad, bad man, which endangers those within the warehouse with the spiders. It's not one you would want to watch twice, but once would leave it stuck in your mind. Check out 'Kingdom of the Spiders' with William Shatner tho. It's better.
A strictly passable 70's made-for-TV killer animal horror flick
This merely okay 70's made-for-TV killer animal fright feature centers on a horde of lethal poisonous tarantulas who run amok and attack folks in the heretofore sleepy little California hamlet of Finleyville after a cargo plane containing the deadly critters crashlands in a nearby field. It's up to take-charge two-fisted fire chief Claude Akins, diligent doctor Pat Hingle, and cranky mayor Bert Remsen to stop the evil arachnids before things get too out of hand. The story has the potential to deliver a suitably creepy nature-turns-nasty yarn, but alas Stuart Hagmann's pedestrian direction, a by-the-numbers script co-written by "The Candy Snatchers" director Guerdon Trueblood, sluggish pacing, infrequent and blandly staged spider attack scenes (although I have to give the film a couple of points for killing off a little boy), and a silly subplot concerning the town's orange crop doom this one to mediocrity. However, the sturdy cast do their best with the generic material (Tom Atkins and Howard Hesseman are especially engaging as the two cargo plane pilots), both Robert Morrison's crisp photography and Mundell Lowe's funky jazzy score are up to snuff, and the last twenty-five minutes with a bunch of people trapped in a warehouse infested with the dangerous buggers makes for a genuinely gripping and nerve-wracking set piece. All in all, this one sizes up as a strictly passable, but altogether rather blah and unexceptional timewaster.
Not the best.. but passable
I love all the 1970's "animals run amok" movies and was really pleased when I found that this TV movie had finally made it onto DVD.. This film is certainly not on a par with the fabulous KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS. The acting is rather wooden even by B movie standards ! I must admit the scenes with the spiders deliver the goods and the scenes inside the dark warehouse work well. I do feel more scary scenes involving spiders attacking the cast would have added more tension. The overall direction is rather poor and fails to raise much tension. Too much "talk" and not enough spider action !im glad I bought this film to add to my "creature flix" collection but I certainly would not recommend unless you are a hardcore fan of these kinda B movies. 5/10