***SPOILERS*** The only release of the now long defunct Cinema-VC Studios with it's star Suzanna Ling's-As spider loving Susan Bradley-first and last movie appearance the film "Kiss of the Tarantula" has to do with Susan getting revenge against those who killed , by stepping on it, her pet tarantula Albert by using a hoard of tarantula spiders that she bred in her basement to do in those that give her and her beloved pet spiders such a hard time. Using the spiders who are in fact really harmless-tarantulas are non-poisonous- but terrifying to look at to do in those that cause her all this trouble.It was Susan's mom Martha, Beverly Eddins, who was her first victim who didn't care much for her pet spiders and was cheating on her undertaker husband John, Herman Wellner, with his brother the town chief of police uncle Walter Bradley, Eric Mason, behind his brother John's back. It's later that Susan took care of those who killed her pet tarantula Albert by dropping a dozen of Albert's or fellow spiders into a car that they were making out in at the local drive-in scaring them all to death or out of their minds and into a coma. It was Bo Havens, Ron Prather, who saw what Susan did who she later dispatched with her tarantulas scaring him to death to keep him from talking to the police.***SPOILERS*** The final nail in the coffin came to her sex crazed and murderous uncle Walter who's plan all along was to get Susan into the sack with him only to end up getting the shaft by her. That's when he was left immobile, by being pushed down a flight of stairs, by Susan and sealed into an air tight coffin, with one of his victims, at her father's mortuary never to see the light of day, or breathing in any fresh air, again.

A teenage outcast, unleashes her revenge, utilizing her eight legged friends, in this slow moving and forgettable horror, which will leave you waiting some for what little gore there is to happen. I mean how much harm can tarantula's do. To that small minority of people who love spiders and revenge, we should have that small minority of people watch this. Given that said, it's not a badly made flick, where even a "Hot Connections" star shows up as one of Susan's peers, who gets his serve at a drive in. He was falsely coming onto her, then entrapping her as to find out how his friends were killed. Bad mistake as our Susan who slightly resembles Carrie, again unleashes her pets. Another guy gets it in an air duct. Our Susan's got other problems. Her father matter of fact owns a funeral parlor where the wife and the bastard of an uncle are getting it on. Again, enter Susan. The opening always stays with me of Susan smiling the sweetest of smiles (too sweet) to camera. This is used in the last shot too, where Susan herself says "I love happy endings". Okay horror fare, but nothing to write home about.

I would guess that this uninspiring little film was probably inspired by Stephen King's book 'Carrie', and possibly even Brian De Palma's film adaptation, as while this film was released in the same year; I'm sure that there was more than enough time to write the script and make the film with what was left of it. Spiders are common throughout horror cinema, and big tarantulas are a fear of many people. Adding to this theme is the tried and tested formula of a young female outcast getting her revenge...so really, there's not many excuses for this film not being better. Kiss of the Tarantula hasn't gone on to achieve much acclaim and it's rather unknown, which doesn't surprise me at all. The film focuses on a young girl who likes spiders. Her mother doesn't share this arachnid appreciation, however, and after continually telling her daughter off for playing with spiders, the young girl decides that enough is enough and ends up putting a spider in her mother's bed, which leads to a heart attack. Some years later, the girl is still disturbed; and decides to use the spiders to get revenge on her current enemies.The fact that this film was shot on a low budget is clearly shown through the use of the spiders; as it can't have cost much to round a few up for filming, and this is pretty much all the film has in terms of horror imagery. The spiders are about enough to pull it through, but the film is otherwise lacking; and I find it hard to believe that everyone except the central character is scared of them. The plots surrounding the spiders isn't too interesting either, with only the idea of the young girl being an outcast for her 'hobby' and a plot involving her uncle and her mother having an affair providing distraction from the central theme. The fact that the film is set in a funeral home is a positive element, as mortuaries often provide an interesting location for horror films, and that works well here. As you might expect given the type of film, the acting is largely diabolical, and I'm not surprised that this was the only film role for Suzanna Ling. Director Chris Munger never made another film after this one also, and overall; Kiss of the Tarantula is almost worth seeing, but you wouldn't be missing anything by not watching it.

Susan is a young girl who had always had an fascination with spiders, but her mom didn't like it. After finding out she had planned to kill her father, just to be with his brother. She scares her mother to death by releasing a Tarantula on her. Years have past, Susan now has a big collection of pet Tarantulas, but one night some hoons come into the mortuary where she lives with her father, to steal a coffin and but they kill one of her spiders. Now she what's to take revenge on those who were involved by releasing her pets onto them. But that's one of her worries, as her sly uncle is now trying to put the moves on her. While searching around in a second hand shop for some unknown films, I came across this little oddity which was called "Kiss of the Tarantula". Well, I liked the look of the front cover of the video case and the synopsis sounded like great b-grade, drive-in 70's feature. Paid my $2 for it, later I watch it that night and I gotta say that this little tale was a fair treat. Not great, but fair is best the way to put it. This simple-minded low budget horror flick had an innocently sweet tone to it, and you'll definitely be thinking of "Willard" (1971), as they shared definite similarities. Just this time it's the spiders turn. Also it adds a twinkle of "Carrie" (1976) into the equation too. But in that case, it doesn't match the thrills of those particular films. It skewed more towards a glum melodrama actually, with the creepy crawlies playing second fiddle to Susan's troubles with her devious uncle. I guess that's just the way the plot plays out, as it seems to lose interest in the tarantulas, because they don't even pop up in the third act. Though saying that, just the look of a hairy spider makes my skin crawl. But here that wasn't always the case, yeah there are some eerie scenes like a grisly panic caused by the tarantulas in a car and a pulsating air vent scene (..now that was eerie). But these were more provoked by panic and you somewhat laugh because its basically silly watching the spiders crawl all over their initial victims. Nothing is totally horrific about the hysteria laced attacks, but more so... freaky. Mainly for a person who has arachnophobia. Most of the time Susan's either pondering around, caressing with her fingertips and talking to them! Suzanna Ling is rather gorgeous as Susan Bradley and Eric Mason is notable as Walter Bradley. The rest of the amateurish cast, I was surprised, they gave above average performances. Though, there were one or two characters that seem to vanish, after thinking they might have more of a role. The dialogue is stilted and the direction is mostly dour with the exception of a couple lines of added irony, but the minor production to a certain agree still generates a surprise or two that sticks with you. That really goes to the cleverly illustrated climax that effectively packs a killer punch. Backing all that up is an electronic score, which did at times settled the mood, but other times came across as unbalanced with rather odd choices and placement. If your looking for something cheesy, you won't find it here, because it takes itself rather seriously. It does comes across like a TV feature, but still it doesn't hamper proceedings.A reasonable time waster, but don't expect a whole lot of spider terror.