#also also some scientist rat came along the plot at some point and wanted his inventions to be better i think and he was pissing off fat rat

[rockyztownesys]

something something dream about shitty movie about some ugly ass rats that live like humans kinda and talk like mafia bosses

[writerwrites]

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Reader, Steve Rogers x Reader

Summary: Protégé to Bruce Banner, Rosemarie finds herself working closely with and befriending the Avengers. Friendship, lust, heartbreak, and so much more find her along this heartbreaking journey into new adulthood. Rosemarie discovers her self-worth and that home is where the heart is… she’ll just have to figure out what her heart is saying first.

Word Count: 2.5k

Warnings: Smut 18+, language, angst, fluff, language, ye ole slow burn, and eventually death, pregnancy, love triangle… or love adjacent to a triangle? It’s complicated.

playlist . masterlist

A/N: This WIP is intentionally made to ruin all of our lives with feels. You were warned. It’s just my writing style, but I use a name for the reader, in this case Rosemarie, so adjust your imaginations as you read, fam. Also, I do what I want, so don’t come at me for MCU canon timelines. The most notable YOLO in this series is that Bucky/Winter Soldier is an Avenger pre-Blip, Banner isn’t in space, and though there’s tension between the Tony and Cap ‘sides’ of the Sokovia Accords they’re all trying to work together. Avenging is not a main point to this story, but that’s the clarification I will give you. I hope you enjoy my first posted fic, leave a comment, review, message, etc.

Introduction: October 2016

--- BANNER SCIENCE TECHNOLOGIES (BST); MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY ---

“Anything? Anything at all? Bueller?” Rosemarie looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, trying to spot some sort of subtle difference in her appearance. Though she had been searching for a job in her field for months, the ‘spooky’ elevator music chirping through the bathroom was an indication that she was just shy of that November 1st tuition payment start up. Her May graduation felt like a distant memory and all the years of hard work and applications to various schools, and even scholarships for being gifted and a minority hardly made a dent in the mountain of debt that came with attaining a doctoral degree. So, the prodigy looked, hoping for even a crinkle in the corner of your twenty-two year old eyes or a crease in her forehead. A little guilty knot formed in her stomach, as she thought no one ever wanted to ‘grow up’ faster than she did.

Rosemarie had been an intern for Stark Industries during her undergrad and worked a part-time research position for Stark while she looked for the right fit. It had been the CEO and his wife, Pepper, who had tipped you off about Dr. Banner’s small new company, Banner Science Technologies. No amount of ass kissing or overtime seemed to get the young woman a chat with Tony Stark, who was providing significant financial support to his friend and her boss’ endeavor, and she had all but given up until three weeks ago. That fateful email felt more like an unexpected termination. The fear of going ‘upstairs’ for that meeting amused Tony, he’d told her so much when he cackled that he had watched her self-talking on the journey up.

Now at BST, Rosemarie was leading a medical research team that rivaled Elon Musk and every major university in neuroscience. But there she was, leaning into the mirror on Day One, wishing she felt like she knew what she was doing, like she didn’t look like a dork in your square black rimmed glasses, or that she would look older than she was because she wanted to be taken seriously. The young doctor hadn’t realized that her accomplishments had already done that for her because almost no one ever blew through a public education, let alone Yale, like she had. The emotions tied to repeated social rejection; however, began to bubble in her chest like poison before her badge glimmered on her hip and snapped her out of the trance.

Oddly, in that interview for BST, Banner didn’t ask the doctor about her research. He asked Rosemarie about her mental health, how she balanced work and life, and what her definition of world peace was. It had somehow never occurred to her that both Banner and Stark shared the unnatural gift of intellect since they were young too and that, at least to some degree, could relate to her experiences. There was a steady and natural intimidation that came with working for an Avenger like Bruce, but seeing the rest of them in passing at the lab in Stark Industry’s famous tower made the young woman slowly catch glimpses of their humanity, taking off the rose colored glasses placed on every stranger’s face by the media’s interpretation of them. Nevertheless, Rosemarie was a nobody, a lab rat, scientist, doctor, dork, and perpetually invisible to everyone at work. In fact, she had been her whole life, special but not special enough to warrant connecting with on a personal level. She told herself you’ll learn to appreciate the anonymity, but after being an academic shining star in college and spending a half a year looking for a job in the field, any semblance of confidence left in her small frame had certainly faltered.

Before Rosemarie could hit the ‘wallow in self pity’ button on her emotional circuit board, the bathroom door opened. Quickly straightening up and without looking at who came, she turned on the water to wash her hands and only upon reaching for the air dryer did she realize that the woman was the curvy redhead Avenger known for her skills in espionage, linguistics, weaponry, and combat; Black Widow. Rosemarie blinked, making a mental note to not call her that if she managed to speak at all. She looked at the young doctor curiously, her eyebrows slowly drawing together in confusion. “Are you really going to the party dressed up as Bruce? We try not to do ‘the Avengers’ at this thing every year.”

Whether it was from Agent Romanoff’s use of air quotes or the fact that she was speaking to a person that saw themselves as invisible, Rosemarie’s mouth bobbed open and closed, head tilting to the side like a confused puppy. “Party? Bruce?” Please, Rosemarie, save yourself from chronic rambling, she mentally monologued, only showing she was in her head through the pursing of her lips and a fleeting nod of acknowledgement; both of which hadn’t gone unnoticed by the spy.

“Bruce really forgot to invite his top dog? Typical. I swear I told him three times this week alone.” She walked around toward Rosemarie with speed and grace. Her gaze was analytical of the body in front of her, despite the majority of it being tucked underneath a pristine new lab coat, as she kept talking, “The annual Halloween costume party is tonight and you and the other two department leads…” she waved her hand when she realized she’d forgotten their names. “Anyways, it’s a party Tony throws every year and it’s always been Stark Industries, Rand Corp., and some other companies in Stark’s pocket that get all the big faces together for a few drinks, laughs, and a good time. Banner Sci. Tech. has Tony at the table and Bruce in bright lights. You’ve got to be there,” Just as a protest was about to pass the girl’s lips a finger went to them, “No excuses, Rosemarie. Consider it a part of the ‘other duties as assigned’ clause on your employment agreement.” She wiggled her fingers dramatically, but there the lab rat stood, utterly dumbfounded. A new question was on her mind: What could she possibly add to a conversation with a bunch of brilliant wealthy CEOs and superheroes? “Soooo, naturally, the people that are the glue of this place should come and rub shoulders. You know, show ‘em why you’re so fantastic. Get to know the people your tech will likely be used by, little like that.”

“But, I’m… me?” The words were quiet, disjointed, and felt like you had more confidence giving your first valedictorian speech to a crowd of Seniors that had bullied you for walking with them at the age of twelve.

“Exactly, Dr. Smarypants. You’re you, which is why we’re going to mine and getting you some costume that doesn’t make you the laughing stock of introductions. How old are you, anyway?” Natasha opened the bathroom door and the doctor walked out feeling like she was about to get the Princess Diaries treatment with some sort of Nightmare on Elm Street plot twist.

“I turned twenty-two last February.” The answer was offered up in the tone of an apology but she disregarded the awkward timbre and stuck to the facts, making Rosemarie’s shoulders relax just a little.

“Well thank God for that,” The Avenger’s laugh echoed through the hall. “I was half worried you wouldn’t be able to drink and then you’d be both bored and silent at the party.”

With a finger up she skipped over to the main lab’s window where Bruce was squinting at four screens and banging on a tablet. When he finally looked over at the redhead, everyone in the vicinity noticed his expression quickly melting, something Rosemarie had certainly never seen. Natasha pointed to her watch, to Rosemarie, and gestured little walking legs with her fingers. Dr. Banner acknowledged her with what looked like a mouthed ‘I love you’ but before Rosemarie could even smile at the site he offered her an apologetic nod, unnerving her once more. In the blink of an eye, Natasha was dragging her out of the office, arm in arm, and out of midtown Manhattan.

--- BRUCE AND NATASHA’S LIMESTONE; UPPER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN, NY ---

Despite asking a few times over what she had in store, Nat, as she asked to be called, gave her little to go on. Sitting on a bench at the foot of her boss’ California King bed, she watched Natasha rummaging through the walk-in closet. “Clint’s daughter dragged me to Disney a few months back. She insisted we go ‘Disneybounding’ and I have more wigs than I’ll ever need.” She was processing her choices and more than once Rosemarie picked up something that flew out of the walk-in closet at her head. A shimmering ruby red dress landed to the left and her mouth fell open in horror at the plunging neckline and thigh extra-high slit. Nat came out with a few things on her arm and laughed at the look of pure exasperation, “Don’t worry, babe, that’s mine… and this,” She plopped the garments into her victim’s arms, “Is your get up. There’s a bathroom down the hall, the only door on the left. I’ll be over in a bit to help with your makeup.”

Rosemarie wasn’t sure if she should take offense to the fact that it wasn’t a question, but remained too intimidated to say anything. Once in the bathroom with her back to the mirror she took off her white lab coat and untucked the seafoam green tie-neck satin blouse and skinny black slacks. As she folded the discarded clothes, she sighed at how proud of the outfit she’d been just this morning and how it now felt like a bland choice by the time she saw half of the spy’s closet. Like the pang of emotions set off a bomb, Rosemarie was self-talking about how nice Nat was being to her and to see this as a professional opportunity rather than a terrifying obligation. The mental chatter was enough to get her into the outfit which, surprisingly, required no sucking in, tucking, or wiggling to get on. It wasn’t until she turned to the mirror that Rosemarie registered what ‘Disney bounding’ was, immediately placing the character the ensemble was meant to resemble.

The high-waisted yellow shorts with their two panels of brassy buttons hugged Rosemarie's hips and made her see the curves of a defined hourglass frame for the first time in clothing other than yoga pants. The off the shoulder royal blue crop top had enough draping and a built-in bra to make her comfortable about wearing this around other professionals, just the tiniest hint of the tan skin of her upper stomach when she raised her hands or posed, neither of which she planned to do tonight. The red bow against black hair was the perfect final touch to make it obvious the outfit was a modern Snow White. Before Rosemarie could overanalyze going to a work event in the getup, there was a rhythmic knock on the door and, even though she thought she’d locked it, Nat was walking in, items in hand. At first she whistled, taking Rosemarie’s hand in hers and spinning her around. Nat smiled when she saw the heat rise up the bashful doctor’s neck and color flooded her cheeks. “I have one last thing.”

Until Nat pulled black heels from behind her back Rosemarie hadn’t even noticed Natasha had changed, but when she did her mouth went dry. “You look…” With a knowing smirk, she put her hands on Rosemarie’s hips and spun her back toward the mirror, her chest pressed to the doctor’s back as she studied her features, the pouted lips and high cheekbones, the long eyelashes underneath the ridiculously hipster glasses. Rosemarie felt naked in front of her, no one having ever really looked at her that way before and her body naturally reacted with a shiver that caused her hips to roll back into her host. As Rosemarie was about to apologize, Nat simply smiled and shook her head no, getting to work on their makeup with both expertise and speed.

Rosemarie thought she had gotten away with the embarrassing and obvious moment of unrequited attraction when the Avenger popped the lipstick into a wristlet purse that looked like an apple. Then she leaned in like a panther pouncing on her prey and, somehow, the doctor didn’t cower back. Nat was intrigued by that, a little curve found its way to the corner of her crimson lips, two shades darker and glossed compared to Rosemarie’s, “Let’s have a good time tonight, Snow. Something tells me it’s going to get very interesting.” She bit her lip, noticing that Rosemarie was holding your breath and assumed that it was a combination of her looking great and being the girlfriend of the girl’s boss, she wasn’t wrong. Nat still dipped down between her legs and slipped the heels onto the young woman’s feet, letting her fingertips tickle her ankle before they were holding hands and heading to the party.

--- STARK INDUSTRIES: THE TOWER; MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY ---

The closer they got to Tony Stark’s ‘Tower’ the more Rosemarie wanted the stroke of midnight to hit so she could get out of dodge. Nat worried, even if she hid it well. She’d playfully asked her a few casual questions about her time at Yale, what the parties were like, and what the doctor liked to do for fun. She quickly and accurately surmised that the twenty two year old had been in love once and upon some bad sex and the dropping of the ‘L’ word, she’d been dropped like a fly. The pity never reached Natasha’s face, but it was there. It reminded her of more than one person that would be at the Tower tonight, and as she cooed compliments to the anxious new girl in town, she hoped that offering the invitation was the right thing. Rosemarie nodded and blushed, hoping accepting was the right choice too, though she didn’t hide it well at all.

As Natasha entertained that young woman with pleasant little stories about how harmless everyone was, she couldn’t help but think that, with the tension of the Sokovia Accords, you might not be up for the mental olympics the attendees would undoubtedly be going through. As the elevator doors closed behind them, Rosemarie didn’t notice how worried Nat was and instead tried to calm herself down in the bustling room. Her matte dusty rose lips pressed into a closed mouth smile as she tried to remember little details about the people in front of her, people that she had only heard about on television or seen through a lab window. “Here we go,” Nat spoke with surprising pep and with a sigh, Rosemarie followed. She was glad Natasha let her walk down the stairs behind her as the crowd funneled in both in front and behind them. You can do this. You’re smart, a good person, you can do this. This is totally normal. Just smile and nod, fake it to the bar, fake it ‘til you make it. The doctor’s gaze brushed across the room after Natasha moved away toward Bruce. Immediately Rosemarie froze, a few heads that had turned to greet Nat now turned toward her. Well, shit.

CHAPTER 1

Taglist: @caplanbuckybarnes​

[vobomon]

TPN Theory: Norman has been infected with Mujika’s blood and has become part-Demon

Since the beginning of time, humans have feared the inevitability of death. And they’ve striven to find a way to avoid their deaths at all costs. 

On the other hand, Demons have always striven to find a way to avoid a “metaphysical” death at the loss of their humanity. From the moment that they ate a human being and obtained their knowledge, they have tried to avoid losing this trait... at all costs.

For humans, death is when their bodies stop functioning and their heart stops. For Demons, death is when they lose all sense of personality and mental reasoning. 

So what if there was a magic “elixir of life” that could grant immortality to both humans and Demons? All it took was a little bit of cursed blood.

Ever since I caught up with the manga, I’ve made countless attempts to guess what happened to Norman during his time stuck in Lambda. But that’s because I have a strong assumption that this particular mystery is being set up as a potential plot point of importance within the near future.

So after spending the last few weeks tossing around potential possibilities and updating ideas based on new information from recent chapters, I’ve come to one conclusion. Due to the nature of the theory that I’m about to make, @couldnt-think-of-a-better-name recommended that I write out my post using a research paper style format.

I’m going to give a brief summary of the main theory and then I’m going to follow up with my personal observations and evidence towards this theory. With that in mind, please note that there will be manga spoilers up until chapter 127.

Lambda has been described as an “experimental facility,” which was intended to test various genetic and body modifications on children. They’d test whatever they wanted… and only worry about the after effects later.

When Norman was entered into this facility, he wasn’t exposed to the same experiments as the other children. His living conditions were vastly different and over all, he was treated a lot better than other cattle children. Almost like a highly prized research subject.

But this begs the question. What could have possibly happened to Norman that would elicit such a strong avoidance towards Lambda? Why does he avoid answering any questions about what happened to himself at Lambda?

In reality, this reaction makes perfect sense if the Lambda scientists... experimented with Demon genetics on Norman and modified his body into having a similar biology akin to a Demon. And its very likely that this happened because he was forcefully infected with Mujika’s blood.

OBSERVATION #1 PETER RATRI’S INFLUENCE

On November 3rd 2045, Norman was shipped away from Grace Field House.

Originally, the reader is led to believe that Norman is simply going to be harvested for meat. But in reality, it is revealed that Norman had been taken to meet Peter Ratri, the 36th head of the Ratri clan.

Thanks to his family and rank, Peter is (arguably) one of the most important human figure heads within the Demon World. So why would he make a special appearance to simply meet with a cattle child…?

His true intentions behind meeting Norman become clear when he requests for the boy’s help with some “research” that he has been working on.

But throughout his entire conversation, Peter’s face is covered in shadow, hereby preventing the reader (and Norman) from being able see his expressions. It is obvious that Peter is hiding something.

From here, we can presume that Norman was sent straight to Lambda.

OBSERVATION #2 LIVING CONDITIONS AT LAMBDA

When we see Norman again, we are treated to our first glimpse at his living conditions. And it actually looks rather comfortable…

He has his own private room – complete with a bed, desk, plenty of books to read… His doctor (even) does regular check-ups on him to observe his health.

As shown by the date, it is January 29th 2046 – almost three months since Norman had left Grace Field. Underneath the date, we see the results of Norman’s check-up such as body temperature and blood pressure.

After his check-up, Norman is treated to a full breakfast, complete with main meal and side dishes. Along with a dose of required medication.

The rest of the day would follow the typical schedule – his routine wasn’t much different than his old schedule back at Grace Field. The only difference was that Norman has been confined to stay in a single room when he wasn’t in the presence of his doctors (or other Lambda scientists) as they needed to accompany him everywhere within the facility.

But even when Norman is left alone in his room, he’s constantly being observed by scientists. They’ve got video cameras on him 24/7 and someone is always watching at all times.

After only three months in Lambda, Norman has already figured out that his living conditions merely are a facade meant to imitate a sense of comfort. The harsh reality behind this set up is blatantly obvious; he’s being taken care of because he’s a highly prized specimen.

And he knows that he’s being used as the test subject for an experiment. But the question is… what type of experiment?

OBSERVATION #3 REOCCURRING THEMES OF CHANGE

Only after the time skip, do we see Norman make his official re-debut back into the story. By this point in time – it is October 2047. But Norman had already been destroying farms for six months prior to October.

Based on later information that Cislo provides as context, it is discovered that Norman was still twelve years old when he escaped Lambda along with the other children.

So we can make a relative guess to the time frame when the escape occurred. It likely was late February (or) early March 2047. This would make the amount of time he spent stuck in Lambda… a grand total of sixteen months. Almost a year and a half.

And ever since escaping, Norman has been playing the role of William Minerva.

While I’ve touched on the subject plenty of times before… it can not be ignored that there an underlining theme that has persisted since Norman re-debuted in the story.

Has Norman changed?

Is he (still) that same innocent child that he was once back at Grace Field? Or has his experiences changed him – whether for better or worse?

Both the characters (and the audience) are constantly looking for reassurance when faced with this question. Despite the length of time that they spent apart, the characters can’t help holding onto a sense of hope that things can simply “return to the way that they used to be.”

Oddly enough, Norman seems a little too eager to put these worries to rest whenever they are brought up. With a smile on his face, he eagerly reassures his family and confirms that nothing has changed – nor will anything ever change.

But sometimes, without realizing it, his smile begins to slip. And this brief moment where his smile falters… it betrays all the reassurance that he spoke previously.

Norman is later confronted by Vincent and this theme is brought back up again. But it is used in a different format – this time emphasizing that Norman has changed compared to his old self. This is in direct opposition to the words that he was telling everyone else in the previous chapter.

Vincent admits that he was curious to see how the “old Norman” acted. But this simple comment is enough to upset Norman who appears to take personal offense to it.

A reaction that seems odd at first… but speaks a lot when taken into context.

He has seen and experienced horrible things in Lambda. He has learned things that have changed his perspective and worldview. He can no longer be considered the same boy that grew up in Grace Field, without any knowledge of the world outside.

But is it possible that he has (also) changed physically – and this change is merely a contributing factor to his mental state?

OBSERVATION #4 IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DEMONS

In chapter 120, Norman takes the time to explain a question that the reader has been dying to learn since the beginning of the story.

But he doesn’t give a simple answer to this question.

Instead he reveals an extensive and in-depth narrative about how the Demons evolved to become the sole apex predator. Along with this, he has knowledge about their biological functions and how their unique genetic traits are inherited.

And while it is extremely satisfying to have some new information revealed that impacts the lore like this… unfortunately, there is one glaring issue that can’t be ignored.

This is highly advanced and classified information that Norman should never have possibly had access to. He had been stuck in Lambda and would have had no way of learning this.

But Norman did gain a lot of information about James Ratri and Peter Ratri from Smee. So it wouldn’t be surprising if Smee had included some classified information about the Demons that he knew and passed it on to Norman.

Wait. How would Smee know the evolution, biology, and inheriting of genetic material–

O H

Smee was a scientist at Lambda.

He probably came in contact with Norman because he was one of the scientists overseeing the experiment.

I’d imagine that Smee’s personal guilt got the better of him. Unlike all the other scientists at Lambda, Smee would have been the only one who saw Norman as an actual child… and not a lab rat to experiment on.

And he couldn’t stand to see them testing on a child who had absolutely no idea what was happening behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Smee paid with his life for this.

OBSERVATION #5 HOW DEMONS REACT TOWARDS NORMAN

When Norman meets with Lord Giiran… it becomes apparent that the elder Demon notices something intriguing about Norman. He can see that Norman shows no fear towards him– with the former going so far as to bring only one ally with him as a sign of trust.

But as Lord Giiran listens to Norman’s request for an alliance, he interjects with his own comment.

This is the first time that we’ve seen someone point out how Norman’s plan appears to be built around his own personal revenge. While in the past, we’ve seen him use the cattle children as his motivation– this is the first moment that such a motivation has been brought into question.

There is a lingering suspicion that Norman is holding a grudge against the Demons and this grudge is (primarily) fueling his need for revolution.

But when faced with this question, Norman avoids answering. He simply smiles and lets the conversation continue naturally, without giving any heed to Lord Giiran’s accusation.

In a later chapter, Norman reveals that Lord Giiran had an ‘alternate’ plan alongside his primary intention of getting revenge. 

He has every intention of obtaining Mujika’s blood for the purpose of helping his clan to survive. It is her blood that will grant them the opportunity to avoid the “metaphysical” death they’ve been trying to rid themselves of... for 700 years.

But after getting a taste of Norman’s blood, Lord Giiran comments how delectable and irresistible the taste is. From just a single drop of blood, he knows that he wants to eat Norman. Because there is something ‘especially’ tasty about his blood.

And there is another thing...

The taste certainly proves that Norman is no “ordinary human.” 

OBSERVATION #6 HOW NORMAN REACTS TOWARDS DEMONS

In previous posts, I pointed out that Norman was displaying various symptoms of Post-Trauma Stress Disorder, both blatant and subtle.  But this fact is still incredibly important to bring up; it reveals the dramatic shift in his mental state.

He has become extremely reckless in his actions, almost as though he lacks a sense of self-preservation.

He walks right into a den full of Demons, without so much as a single care about his own safety. And later he even acknowledges the fact that he knew that these Demons would happily eat him– had they been given the slightest opportunity.

He has prided himself on his singular goal of protecting all the cattle children. Often he has repeated the same line in response to this goal.

If the blood of any cattle child is spilled, then his rebellion will have been for nothing. He wants to see only Demon blood be spilled in this upcoming revolution.

So why does Norman feel that its necessary to spill his own blood for the revolution to be effective?

Because under his new revolution, he doesn’t consider himself someone who is in need of protection. He’ll happily spill his own blood to achieve the results that he wants to acquire.

From his own perspective, he’s simply spilling more Demon blood for the revolution.

But if Norman doesn’t consider his own blood to be worth the same as “cattle child” blood, then why does he see himself as expendable?

We’ve seen Norman eat food before… so if he were more akin to a Demon, then he’d have to have obtained a similar biology to a Heathen.

A Demon that doesn’t have to eat human meat in order to keep their intelligence or humanoid form…

But how in the world would it be possible for him to obtain–

The blood of a Heathen… one that had the ability to infect another individual with their characteristics…

BONUS OBSERVATION HOW WOULD THIS THEORY AFFECT THE STORY?

What if Norman was revealed to have a biology similar to a Demon? What if he had the same blood as Mujika?  How would his motivation and plans be viewed differently in hindsight?

It is important to remember how closely this arc is attempting to parallel the Escape Arc. And one of the memorable moments from the Escape Arc was Norman’s shipment.

He’s always had a habit of trying to sacrifice himself for the happiness of Emma and his family. This personality trait certainly hasn’t disappeared– no, it’s only gotten stronger during his departure from the story.

Now that he has taken on the role of William Minerva, he’s become a “savior” or “martyr” figure for the cattle children.

And his newest goal is to wipe every single Demon out of existence.

So if Norman considers himself to “be similar to a Demon,” then he probably has every intention of sacrificing himself for this goal to come true.

In a parallel to his “death” during the Escape Arc, Norman will hide his intentions of sacrificing himself. He’ll keep it a secret from both Emma and Ray.

He has already shown that he would be willing to kill Mujika and Sonju for the sake of his revolution. And even in spite of Emma’s pleas that they are “good individuals who saved them,” Norman’s own thoughts stand unwavering.

If they’re Demons, then they must be destroyed. No matter whether they are “good” people. They must be killed. Every single one.

Including himself.

Norman took on the identity of James Ratri/William Minerva because he can not (in good conscience) call himself “Norman” anymore.

He’s a Demon now… so it would simply be better if his family remembers Norman as he once was. Instead of the monster that he has become.

And that is why he can not let his family ever find out.

Because knowing Emma… she’ll probably just argue that nothing has changed about him. She say that he’s still the same Norman as before.

That’s just like her. She’s far too kind… and extremely naive about how the world works.

And if she found out, then she’d never let him kill the Demons. But sometimes life isn’t kind – and you don’t get what you want.

It might just take an onscreen fake-out death to reveal the truth.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael After Midnight: Captain Planet and the Planeteers

You knew it was coming. No series of reviews of cheesy 90s environmental movies would be complete without the crown jewel of such things, Captain Planet and the Planeteers. This show is legendary for being the cheesiest, corniest bunch of heavy-handed moralizing you could ever hope to see on television, filled with dorky puns and blatantly evil villains… and for that, it is without a doubt one of my favorite cartoons ever. And might I just say it also has one of my favorite end credits songs ever?

So what is this show about? So five multinational kids are selected by Gaea to gain magical rings of power to defend the Earth. The rings correspond to an element – Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, and Heart (which is not technically an element) – and allow the kids to have cool-ass powers. But even better, when all of the kids combine their powers together, they can summon forth the ultimate guardian of Earth, a blue man with a green mullet who spouts puns named CAPTAIN PLANET! Basically it’s like if FernGully and Power Rangers had a baby and said baby was forced to watch nature documentaries 24/7. Anyway, these kids gotta go fight the evil villains and shit and stop them from doing everything from polluting to selling drugs to kids to selling actual nukes to Hitler. Can they make the world a better place? I mean, they sure made my world a better place, this shit is hilarious!

Okay, honesty time: as much as it’s easy to snark at this show for the terrible morals it sometimes espoused (they did two episodes on population control, and the morals there are some of the most botched morals you will ever see), this show did generally speaking have its heart in the right place and it really did deliver some solid messages. For instance, there was an episode centered around AIDS, something that wasn’t really a thing people were educated about at the time the show came out thanks to everyone’s favorite senile moron Ronald Reagan and his mess of an administration. The episode’s moral, that people with the disease are just normal people in need of help and not freaks to be shunned, is frankly an important one, especially for the time period. This isn’t the only tough subject the show tackled; it tackled a lot of gritty issues like this that other animated shows of the time wouldn’t dare go near. There’s episodes on drug dealing, four on gang violence, hell people even actually die in some episodes! And there a re plenty of solid environmental issues along with social ones. For every poorly-handled message, there’s always a couple of really well-done or ballsy messages to make up for it.

The diversity of our heroes is also a nice touch. We got the Eastern European Linka, the Southeast Asian Gi, the African Kwame, the South American Ma-Ti, and the American from New York, Joey Wheeler (No, not that one)… the fact they’re from all around the world really does kinda drive home the series’ point that we all gotta contribute to make the world a better place. They aren’t too shabby as characters, either; sure, they can be corny and cliché, but none of them are too unenjoyable or anything.   And then we come to our final hero, Captain Planet himself, and I just gotta say it: I love this fucking doofus. Every line of dialogue is the cheesiest pun you can imagine to suit the situation, his style is so obnoxiously, goofily 90s, and he’s just an absolute blast. It helps he has a really pleasant and heroic voice and that despite his numerous weaknesses and the sheer cheese factor of the character, he is pretty cool.

Now we have the villains! No superhero show is complete without a robust rogues gallery, and boy oh boy do we have a rogues gallery here! Let me just list off some of the villains we have here, along with their celebrity VA: Hoggish Greedly (Ed Asner), a pig-man who is the embodiment of overconsumption of natural resources; Looten Plunder (played by James Coburn, who you’ll likely know as Waternoose from Monsters, Inc.), an evil poacher and corrupt businessman; Sly Sludge (Martin Sheen), a lazy waste disposal specialist who is the living embodiment of careless, thoughtless waste disposal; Verminous Skumm (Uh, Jeff, uh, Jeff Goldblum), an evil rat man who seems to do evil for shits and giggles; Dr. Blight (Meg Ryan), a wicked scientist with an evil computer sidekick named MAL who was played by Tim Curry (Not the first time he’s played a villain who is not eco-friendly as you may recall); Zarm (Sting, of The Police fame), an evil former guardian spirit of Earth who now murders planets; and Duke Nukem (no, not THAT one), a radioactive mutant. It should be noted a lot of these celebs were replaced with more typical VAs in later seasons; for example, Maurice LaMarche took over Skumm and Nukem, Mary Kay Bergman took over Blight, stuff like that. Zarm’s third VA was Malcolm McDowell, which is cool as hell, and Asner stayed the whole series, so it wasn’t all around that things changed, and I believe Tim Curry was actually a replacement VA. So yes, this rogues gallery has great voice actors all around, whether they be big celebs or famous professional voice actors, they’re all hilariously hammy and cheesy, and they all do what needs to be done to impede the Planeteers and drive the plot along. As absolutely stereotypical, cartoonish, and blatantly evil as all these people are in looks and name, you’d be hard pressed not to have picked a favorite after a few episodes.

This is some of the goofiest, dopiest, most anvilicious animation you could ever hope to see, but goddamn if I don’t love every dopey minute of it. Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s the Earth Day marathons I watched on Boomerang, who knows, but I have a soft spot in my heart for this show that will never die. I’ll be the first to admit this show is cheesy and silly, but you know, it did a lot of things other cartoons didn’t dare do, talked about shit no one else wanted to talk about. Yeah, it fucked up sometimes, but you have to give it credit for trying to be more serious than other cartoons of its kind. Call it a guilty pleasure, call it so bad it’s good, but you can never call Captain Planet unwatchably bad.

THE POWER IS YOURS!

[mst3kproject]

407: The Killer Shrews

Whatever else one might say about The Killer Shrews, it is a huge step up from The Giant Gila Monster in at least one respect – it is actually about the titular monsters, and those monsters actually interact with the human characters! So far, so good.  Then we get to the monsters themselves, and... oh, dear.  This movie wouldn't quite be better without the shrews in the way that last week's feature would without the lizard, but they're still a very significant problem for what would otherwise be a serviceable film.

A small boat arrives at a remote island off the coast of wherever this is (the opening narration suggests the Pacific Northwest). Captain Sherman and his redshirt buddy are there to deliver supplies to a scientific outpost, but plan to stay overnight in order to ride out an approaching hurricane (meaning it can't possibly be the Pacific Northwest).  This is treated as bad news by Mad Scientist Dr. Marlowe Cragis and his assistant and daughter Anne.  After some beating around the bush as night closes in, Cragis confesses that he has created a species of giant, nocturnal, venomous, man-eating rodent.  With supplies running low, the group must make a break for the boat in the morning – if only they can first survive the night!

At its barest and boniest this is the plot of Alien, The Thing, Friday the Thirteenth, The Green Slime, and god knows how many other movies: a small group of people are stranded in the middle of nowhere with something that wants to kill them.  They're picked off one by one, usually ethnic stereotypes first, until the last desperate survivors must destroy their foe and get to the choppah for rescue. Although there are some very good movies with this premise, there are also some thoroughly terrible ones.  The Killer Shrews is pretty mediocre, but does its best with the material and sometimes comes surprisingly close to success.

In the average 'trapped with a monster' movie, the characters are either completely dull or utterly detestable – the latter option usually makes for a more entertaining film, since we can at least take some vindictive joy in watching these assholes get killed.  The Killer Shrews has its share of nobodies: Griswold the first mate and Mario the janitor are the aforementioned ethnic stereotypes, who are in the movie so it can put off the deaths of the white people.  Uber-nerd Bradford feels like he ought to be a joke but never gets a punchline. He dies pretty quickly, too.

The rest of the dramatis personae, however, have a little more meat on their metaphorical bones: Dr. Cragis is fascinated by the shrews' single-minded and ruthless survival instincts, admiring their effectiveness even as they threaten his life.  Anne is as consumed by guilt over her own role in creating the monsters as she is by her fear of them.  Her crush on Sherman and semi-frantic attempts to endear herself to him seem to have more to do with the fact that he represents a chance of escape than with any real attraction.  Jerry's determination to finish the experiments, in spite of his cowardice, stems from a desperate need to atone for his past mistakes.  Captain Sherman is supposed to be our hero, but there's a point when the others nearly have to physically intervene to stop him from throwing Jerry to the shrews.  Everybody in this film has been pushed to the edge of sanity.

So what keeps it from being effective?  There's a few things.  One is the acting – Ingrid Goude as Anne and Baruch Lumet as Dr. Craigis are pretty good, but the other major players tend to be too low-key to really be convincing.  The one exception is Ken Curtis as Jerry, who overplays everything just that crucial tiny bit. Whether drunk, paranoid, or hysterical, he tends to end up sounding like he's in a high school play.

As with The Giant Gila Monster, we begin with a voiceover that provides us with a completely different origin for the monsters than the actual story will do.  Here the narrator tells us that this is a new species, which first appeared in Alaska before moving south into Canada.  The subsequent movie, however, informs us that the shrews were the product of mad science (and for once there’s an actual justification for the experiments besides ‘let’s see if we can create a monster’. Cragis was studying the relationship between size and metabolism).  Seeing as one of the characters claims to have created the shrews himself, I'm going to go with his version rather than Mr. Voiceover's, but it does make me think the opening narrations wern't originally part of either movie.

There's too much exposition.  The script spends a very long time emphasizing the voraciousness of the shrews through dialogue, and while this does also establish a certain amount of character, it would have been far more effective to show us the small shrews ravenous' appetites.  Our imaginations could then have done the job of scaling it up – the idea of being gnawed to death by rats is truly horrifying, and being gnawed by giant rats would hardly be less so.  Having typed that, however, I realized that doing this in 1959 for this particular movie would probably have involved forcing a couple of cute mice to fight to the death, as many times as necessary to get the shot right.  So on second thought, never mind.

The music is unsubtle but it works all right.  Same with the direction, which is actually another marked step up from The Giant Gila Monster.  For the most part Kellogg still just points the camera at what's happening and films, but at least people move around within some of the shots and display body language rather than just putting a leg up on the nearest ledge.

We get no real impression of the hurricane itself besides hearing the howling wind – I don't think there's a single shot in which we are in any way aware of rain.  Just the sound of it hammering on the roof would have done wonders for the feeling of claustrophobia the movie is trying to create.

I think you know what I'm working up to here, though.  While there's a lot of minor adjustments that could have been made to help The Killer Shrews, the main problem is the actual shrews.  They're among the least-convincing monsters in film history.  Trailer Club 70 included them in its bottom five, along with the jellyfish man from Sting of Death and the turkey-headed vampire from Blood Freak.

How do you depict a giant rodent in a movie?  Well, if you're Rob Reiner, you throw a big latex puppet at Carey Elwes.  If you're Bert I. Gordon, you film actual rats in extreme close-up and pretend they match your amusingly adorable fake rat heads.  If you're Bruno Mattei, you put rat masks on your actors and leave the audience wondering what the fuck they're watching (god, I've seen way too many movies). And if you're Ray Kellogg, you shave a bunch of dogs and hope we won't notice.

Well, okay, that's not fair: not every shrew in the movie is a shaved dog.  Some of them are dogs with ratty-looking fake fur draped over them.  Others are puppet heads with long 'fangs' that look like a third-grader's attempt at a saber-toothed tiger prop for a home-made caveman movie.  All of them are tragically cheap and completely unconvincing.  The heads are immobile, so in the shots where a shrew is supposed to be biting somebody, all we see is the puppet's nose being rubbed against a pre-bloodied trouser leg. In another scene a 'shrew' enters the room, and is not only obviously a dog, it's a dog that's happy to see you!  I have never seen a shot so entirely ruined by ordinary canine body language (though bits of Teenage Caveman come damn close).

Considering the sorts of things I tend to talk about on this blog, you're probably wondering why I haven't said anything yet about Anne's decision to give up science and become a housewife. Truth is, that's just not high on the list of things that suck remarkably about The Killer Shrews.  I mean, yeah, it's definitely sexist, but it's handled so much better here than the comparable development in Rocketship XM that I have kind of a hard time being angry about it.  Dr. Van Hoorne supposedly came to realize that the men were right and she was wrong, despite all narrative evidence to the contrary.  Anne Cragis' retirement is her choice, not imposed upon her by the male characters, and emerges organically from her own story.

The men in Rocketship XM asked Dr. Van Hoorne why cooking and cleaning and changing diapers isn't enough for her.  In The Killer Shrews, Sherman asks Anne whether she's a scientist in the obvious expectation of a 'yes', and listens sympathetically while she talks about it.  When she states her choice to retire and lead a 'normal' life, he is supportive of this without placing a value judgment on it.  The fact that Anne is the only woman in the film makes it very difficult not to see her as the writer's stand-in for all women everywhere, but there is at least no explicit statement that science is no place for women.  It's a low bar, but hey.

Remember Terror from the Year 5000, in which a woman promptly abandoned her fiance when the hero appeared on the scene? This happens in The Killer Shrews as well, but again, it's less annoying here.  Unlike Claire and Bob, Anne and Sherman actually get to know each other a little over the course of the story.  Her engagement with Jerry is already ended, for completely understandable reasons, and Sherman represents both her potential escape from the island and a person who listens to her respectfully rather than trying to impose his own will.  It's still a useless romantic subplot that exists to add artificial drama, but we have reasons why these characters behave as they do and it feels more like part of the same story rather than a distraction from it.

All things considered, I'm left with the impression that if writer Jay Simms and director Ray Kellogg had wanted to make movies that did not have giant mutant animals in them and had been given a bit of money to do so, they probably could have done a pretty good job.  The two movies they did make are a long way from masterpieces, but there are some surprisingly good things in them for those who care to stop riffing and look.

[themastercylinder]

SUMMARY

Dr. Robert “Rack” Hansen, a veterinarian in rural Verde Valley, Arizona, receives an urgent call from a local farmer, Walter Colby. Colby is upset because his prize calf has become sick for no apparent reason, and the animal is brought in to Hansen’s laboratory. Hansen examines the calf, which dies shortly afterward. Hansen tells Colby he cannot explain what made the animal so ill so quickly, but takes samples of the calf’s blood to a university lab in Flagstaff.

A few days later, Diane Ashley, an arachnologist, arrives looking for Hansen. Ashley tells Hansen that the calf was killed by a massive dose of spider venom, which Hansen greets with skepticism and disbelief. Undaunted, Ashley tells him the problem is serious and that she wishes to examine the animal’s carcass and the area where it became sick. Hansen escorts Ashley to Colby’s farm; and moments after they arrive, Colby’s wife, Birch, discovers their dog is also mysteriously dead. Ashley performs a quick chemical test on the dog’s carcass and concludes that like the calf, it 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 together due to the heavy use of pesticides, which are eradicating their natural food supply. In order to survive, the spiders are joining forces to attack and eat larger animals–and humans.

Hansen and Ashley return to the Colby farm to burn the spider hill. As the scientists and the Colbys are walking past a barn, a bull erratically stampedes out, also being attacked by tarantulas. Ashley notes that the spiders likely will not be afraid to attack people either. Colby douses the spider hill with gasoline and lights it on fire, seemingly destroying the spider menace. However, many of the spiders escape out of a distant tunnel. Colby is attacked by a group of tarantulas as he is driving along in his truck the next day, sending the truck over the side of a hill and killing him. Hansen happens upon the accident scene and helps the sheriff, Gene Smith, examine the wreckage. Colby’s body is found encased in a cocoon of spider webs. Meanwhile, Ashley is notified by her colleagues that a sample of venom from one of the spiders is five times more toxic than normal. Hansen is then told by the sheriff that several more spider hills have been located on Colby’s property.

Hansen, Ashley and the sheriff examine the hills along with the mayor of Camp Verde, who orders the sheriff to spray the hills and the surrounding countryside with a pesticide. Ashley protests, arguing that pesticide use is what caused the problem to begin with and that the town would be better off using birds and rats (tarantulas’ enemies in nature) to eradicate them. The mayor dismisses the idea, fearing that having a large number of spiders and rats all over the countryside will scare away patrons of the annual county fair. A crop duster is enlisted to spray the pesticide; but once airborne, the pilot is attacked by tarantulas, causing him to crash the plane and perish before he can successfully disperse the spray.

The spiders eventually begin their assault on the local residents, killing Birch and Hansen’s sister-in-law, Terri. Hansen arrives at their home and rescues Terri’s daughter, Linda, from the spiders. Hansen, Ashley, and Linda then take refuge in the Washburn Lodge. They consult with the sheriff, who tells them that the spiders are everywhere and Camp Verde is cut off from the outside world. Officer Smith drives into town, while Hansen and the other survivors at the lodge plan to load up an RV and escape. However, the spiders have them trapped in the lodge, and they barricade themselves inside. Meanwhile, Smith arrives at Camp Verde and finds the town in screaming chaos, as it is under siege by the spiders. Smith tries to escape, but is killed when another car crashes into a support post under the town’s water tower, causing it to fall on his vehicle and crushing him to death.

Back at the lodge, the power goes out, and Hansen is forced to venture into the lodge’s basement to change a blown fuse. He succeeds, but is besieged by spiders who break through one of the basement windows by using their combined weight. He makes it upstairs just in time to be saved by Ashley.

The film concludes the next day, with the survivors rigging up a radio receiver and listening for news of the attacks. To their surprise, the radio broadcast doesn’t mention the attacks, indicating that the outside world is oblivious to what has happened. Hansen pries off the boards from one of the lodge’s windows, and discovers that the entire building is encased in a giant web cocoon. In the final scene, the camera pulls back to reveal the entire town of Camp Verde encased in cocoons as well.

  DEVELOPMENT

The project began with Igo Kantor, a 20-year movie veteran who had worked as a composer (Nightmare in Wax, Russ Meyer’s Vixen). editor (Arch Oboler’s The Bubble) and music supervisor (TV’s The Monkees) and wanted to give producing a try. “A friend of mine came to me with a short synopsis of a story that was somewhat reminiscent of The Birds,” remembers Kantor, who started his career with Ed Wood Jr. while still in college. “Except that it was not birds, it was about spiders that are going to take over because they’re short of food supply and are going to get even, first with animals and then with people.”

Igo Kantor made his entrance into the horror genre with Kingdom of the Spiders in 1977. This taut thriller deals with an ecological imbalance that causes thousands of tarantulas to go on a rampage in a small Arizona town. For this picture, Kantor promoted John “Bud” Cardos from second unit work to the position of director; together, this producer-director team created a horror film with sympathetic characters, tight plotting and good action.

The collaboration between Cardos and Kantor on Kingdom of the Spiders began when Cardos was shown a story that he describes as “really bad.” Despite the story’s failings, he saw some cinematic potential in this tale of spiders on the rampage, and his background in animal handling made him the perfect choice to direct 5000 tarantulas. Alan Caillou, a staff writer on TV shows like Thriller and Man from U.N.C.L.E. and scripter of such memorable B-movie efforts as Bert I. Gordon’s campy oversized-teen epic Village of the Giants and the bikers VS. Vietcong classic The Losers, was called in to rework an original script by Jeffrey M. Sneller that Caillou deemed “absolutely unworkable.” Director John “Bud” Cardos came to me at 10:00 one night and said, Alan, we’re about ready to start shooting, and just look at this bloody Script,'” recalls Caillou, who also had a career as an actor in films like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Beyond Evil. ” ‘Give me a hand, help me straighten this thing out. We worked through the night, till 5 a.m., and I got it organized decently.”

He brought the story to Kantor and, between the two of them, they worked with several writers to bring out a convincing, suspenseful script. This intensive script preparation is characteristic of the work of the Cardos/Kantor team. Cardos says that Kantor is excellent at developing dialogue, while he describes himself as an idea man, especially in terms of action.

Micro-distributor Dimension Pictures had green lighted the project, but Kantor had to enlist the aid of numerous investors including Sneller, who shared producing credit with Kantor to reach the necessary $500,000 budget. “We had about 10 producers,” Caillou says. “There are only two credited, but there were so many of them. I recall that one of them borrowed $10,000 from his father, bought himself a producer job on the picture by investing the money and then told his father the movie was an absolute flop and he’d never get paid back. Meanwhile, the picture was making money hand over fist!”

  PRE-PRODUCTION

Igo Kantor made his entrance into the horror genre with Kingdom of the Spiders in 1977. This taut thriller deals with an ecological imbalance that causes thousands of tarantulas to go on a rampage in a small Arizona town. For this picture, Kantor promoted John “Bud” Cardos from second unit work to the position of director; together, this producer-director team created a horror film with sympathetic characters, tight plotting and good action. They also had to deal with thousands of live tarantulas and had to convince actors to deal even more directly with the poisonous bugs. Kantor points out that, even though tarantulas carry venom, they are fragile, unaggressive, and have stingers that are not very effective at penetrating human skin. Just the same, actors’ fears were still an issue. “The way we cast that picture, “Kantor says, “”was by having a big, live tarantula in the office during interviews, Actors and actresses would come in and we’d take the spider out and put it on their shoulder. If they didn’t faint, they had the job.

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  CASTING

Cardos straight-no-chaser attitude came to the fore when it was time to select the female star. “What I did was, when I was casting the part of the lead girl, I kept two live tarantulas on my desk in one of those one-fish aquarium things,” Cardos remembers.

“They’d come in, and while we were talking. I’d just pick it up and hand it to ’em, And then they screamed and ran for the door! Donna Mills came in for the part, but she was so afraid of them that it was impossible. “I remember we had Barbara Hali [Della Street on TVs Perry Mason) as one of the first candidates, and she fainted dead away.” says Kantor. “So she didn’t get the part.”

Tiffany Bolling, I handed it to her and she just put her hand out.” Bolling was a model-turned-actress who’d had roles in ’70s drive-in fare like The Candy Snatchers and was pursued by Edd “Kookie” Byrnes in the unique split-screen psycho film Wicked, Wicked; in 1976, she played the “Spider Lady” in an episode of the kids’ super heroine show Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.

You worked with William Shatner on KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS.

 BOLLING: Well, first of all, where we shot was a dream come true, in Sedonia, Arizona, it’s like four seasons come through every day, you get your snow at night and then it warms up to about 70° in the daytime and you can go lie by the pool. So, it was a wonderful place to be able to shoot a film and I felt so bad for those poor spiders, because they were all so innocent, bless their hearts. And Bill Shatner…he’s a horny guy, like most men. [Laughs]

  So he chased you around?

 BOLLING: No. Well, just little [things], so that was fine. His wife, Marcie, was in the film, too, you know.

 So he kind of flirted with you?

 BOLLING: Well, sure, but I thought that was great, because it helped us work together, because I’m supposed to be this very tongue-in-cheek “Ms.” type of person, and so he used that a lot.

“What was really a great help,” he adds, “was a little girl in the cast the name of Natasha Ryan. She loved the tarantulas she had one for a pet. She was playing with them on location in Arizona and all these actors would say, Well, heck, this little girl can play with them, it must be okay.’ So finally even the crew could deal with them. William Shatner was a real trouper-he had 50 live tarantulas on him in one scene.

Shatner, of course, had become a genre star thanks to Star Trek and had also appeared in such scrappy low-budget affairs as Impulse (a.k.a. Want a Ride, Little Girl?) and The Devil’s Rain. The actor, whose then wife Marcy Lafferty co-stars in Kingdom, delivers one of his most low-key performances as Rack Hansen, the good-ol’-boy vet who first investigates the spider attacks. “I guess I was attempting to be real in a potentially very unreal situation,” says Shatner about his lack of horror flick hysterics.  While Shatner’s presence adds immeasurably to the film’s appeal and longevity, he was not the first choice. “We had come up with Jim Mitchum, Bob Mitchum’s son, and then all of a sudden Jim wanted somebody else to direct it. I said, ‘Well, I don’t think so!” laughs Cardos.

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Kingdom of the Spiders Spanish Lobby Cards

“And remember Bo Svenson?” he continues, recalling another actor who was in line before Shatner. ” had done a picture with him about a month before Kingdom of the Spiders started, and Bo and I became pretty good buddies. I wanted to talk to him about doing it. I thought he might be a good choice, ’cause he Was kinda hot back around then, and at the time Bill Shatner was not as hot. He and I met for lunch, and wound up staying for lunch and dinner and almost closed the place,” Cardos laughs. “Drinks all day and all night! And he just said, ‘Nahhh, I don’t think so.’ Then, after the movie was done and Bo saw it, he called me up and was crying on the phone almost, saying, “My God, why didn’t I do that picture?!'”

After all that, Kantor and Cardos almost didn’t land their third choice, either! “I had worked with William Shatner on another picture a few years before that,” the director remembers. “They submitted the Script to his agent and the agent gave it to Bill and he just turned it down, Now, when I heard that, I said, ‘Naw, that ain’t right. So I called up Bill and went over to his house. We sat there with a glass of wine and some cheese, and I told him what I was gonna do and how I was gonna do it. Well, by the time I left there two or three hours later, he had called the office and said, “OK, I’ll do it.”

“It looked like an exploitation film, and I didn’t think I should do that type of film at that point in my career,” Shatner explains his initial refusal. “But I talked to Bud, and he told me about how he was casting women by making them stick their hands in the jar of spiders, and I thought that was very funny and inventive, so I trusted him with the project.”

Cast as Hansen’s young niece Linda was child actress Natasha Ryan. “It was, of all the lovely B flicks I’ve done in my time,” Ryan recalls, “the most enjoyable filming of any of them.” Already a TV veteran by the time she screamed her way through Kingdom of the Spiders, she later had supporting roles in The Amityville Horror, The Day Time Ended, Going Berserk and 1983’s underrated ghost-rapist film The Entity. Little Ryan definitely deserves some kind of acting honors for Kingdom; though barely out of day care, she had to pretend to be afraid of spiders! “I love tarantulas,” she beams. “I’ve owned one personally ever since. I own one presently!”

Woody Strode, the late black character actor whose career spanned from 1940s films to Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead, played Walter Colby, the farmer who first reports the spider activity. “Woody Strode fantastic man,” says Cardos. “Just a gentleman. We had some fun. One night, I think it was on Easter eve, we wrapped in Camp Verde, and they had a big old bar and steakhouse there. It had giant wooden stools with the leather tops on ’em and a huge wooden bar—you know, the whole thing. Well, we got there and it was already closing. But I’ll be damned if the old bartender didn’t open up for us, then closed the doors. Woody played guitar and I play guitar; we had about a dozen crew and actors and stuff, and Woody and I played guitar till the sun came up!” Cast as Colby’s wife was Altovise Davis, then spouse of Sammy Davis Jr., who was making her film debut.

Kingdom of the Spiders – Interview with William Shatner

BEHIND THE SCENES

“Making a movie is always fun, but on this film I started every day with a bucket of spiders dumped over my head, Shatner says, explaining his less than pleasant memories of the shoot. Did you know that tarantula fur is what they make itching powder with? And for good reason! Also, tarantulas have these hooks at the end of each leg. Normally it’s not a problem, but I was wearing a silk shirt and they would stick right into my skin. And they do bite! Everyone kept saying, “We took their stingers out but I was bitten many times.”

While all remember Shatner as a 100 percent trouper and a pleasure to work with, Ryan does recall the fearless Captain Kirk showing a more vulnerable side. “I remember one scene he was antsy in,” she says. “There was a scene in the lodge where I’m sitting on a bed covered with them, and he’s supposed to rush in and pluck me off the bed. Which he did, but in between takes the tarantulas were crawling up the inside of his thighs, which he wasn’t too comfortable with!”

Kantor describes his leading man as having an “anything to be realistic” attitude, which he proved in a shot towards the end of the film, where his character stumbles out of the basement, almost dead from spider bites. “I wanted to have a shot in the movie where I’m covered with spiders, and then I fall down right in front of the camera and we see one crawl off my face,” Shatner says. “Just to prove to the audience that these were real spiders. Well, it took six takes to do it. On the fifth take it was right, but then the still photographer popped up in the corner of the frame. How much spirit gum you use to keep a live spider on a man’s face was a continuing issue of debate.”

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Kingdom of the Spiders (Mörder Spinnen) German Lobby Cards

“While they were shooting in Arizona, but before I joined them there, they told me to give the screenplay some urgency by putting in a scene from Jaws, which at the time was very popular,” says Caillou. “I said, “For God’s sake, this is stealing somebody’s screenplay! I’m not going to do it. One of the producers, a friend of mine, then went and hired another writer (Robinson) to put these changes into my script-about 20 or 30 of them scattered throughout. And instead of paying this writer, they offered him 50 percent credit.” Cardos, with whom Kantor had worked on Nightmare in Wax, was chosen to sit in the director’s chair on Kingdom. Not wanting to make waves because he was friends with many of the people involved. Caillou agreed to share co-screenwriting credit with Richard Robinson, who only added minor changes to his work.

To create the considerable action and stunts for Kingdom of the Spiders, Cardos had to create a maximum of effect within limited resources. Working under these conditions comes naturally to him, I have this background,” he says, “from years ago in independent movies where we’d improvise everything. To get a car crash, for instance, we didn’t spend much money. We bought a junker and I would back-rig the throttle and throw it in gear and let it go-you take your foot off the gas and it went full-bore. So, in Kingdom, on a stunt like the plane crashing into the building, I could see it and improvise and it doesn’t cost that much, I can’t use dollars and cents because I really don’t know. I know that a major studio would pay maybe $10,000 or $20,000 to do that plane stunt. We probably built the set and shot it for $2000 or less.”

“Obviously, working with tarantulas is not easy because they don’t always follow instructions,” Kantor adds. “But otherwise, it was one of the easiest shows I’ve done.”

Having a limited budget for the full-scale pandemonium the script called for, the production team found enjoyable ways to stretch their finances, Kantor, Cardos and Caillou all enlisted their families as extras and for minor speaking parts, and some of the action highlights were not exactly what they seem. One involved veteran stuntman Whitey Hughes, who plays the crop duster hired by the mayor to dump pesticides on the rebelling arachnids, against Dr. Ashley’s warnings, Attacked in

midair by spiders, the plane crashes into a gas station, signaling the full scale spider siege to begin, “We never actually crashed a plane, Kantor reveals. “It was an optical illusion. We had the plane actually go behind the gas station, but shot it from straight ahead. We detonated the gas station at the precise moment when the plane crossed the sightline; it was actually just behind it. But it appears for all intents and purposes that the plane crashed into the station.”

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“In the shot of me in the plane screaming and everything, we propped the airplane up, got the tail end of it up so it looked like an aerial shot,” Hughes explains. “They put the tarantulas all over the plane’s joysticks, and they were crawling onto my hand and my face. When I did the scream in that thing, they all said, ‘Boy, Whitey, that scream sounded real.’ I said, ‘Believe you me, it was real!” ”

While the crop dusting scene is one of the highlights of the film, it did come at a cost-namely the good will of the local police force. “I remember we had the airplane flying at 150 feet over Camp Verde, and the police came out in every car they had to find out what the hell was going on. When the pilot finally landed, they picked him up, handcuffed him and threw him in jail!” laughs Caillou. “But Bud Cardos is a very tough man who doesn’t stand for any bloody nonsense. He went round to the police and said, ‘What the hell are you doing with my pilot! I need him! I want him out! Somehow he talked the cops into letting the guy go, and no action was taken.”

Cardos remembers the incident somewhat differently: “We had to drop in very low when we did that crash, and we didn’t get a permit for buzzing, but I don’t think they arrested him,” the director says. “I think they just slapped his fingers or something. They didn’t haul him off, I don’t believe.”

THE SPIDERS

Come early 1977. money in line and cast and crew chosen, the only thing left was to gather up the film’s titular stars. “We got 5,000 live tarantulas from Mexico at $10 a crack, so that was $50,000 just for Spiders.” Kantor reveals, “We also had a few rubber ones in the background. We had spider wranglers in Mexico hunting for tarantulas for six or eight weeks.”

“We used every spider in Mexico, I believe,” Shatner recalls. “The spiders were from Southern Mexico; those are far superior to the ones from the North. They walk with a sashay and have a lot more charm,” he laughs.

“They had to keep ’em warm in heat containers,” adds Kantor, “And you can’t put two tarantulas into one container because they’re carnivorous and they’ll eat each other. So they had to keep ’em separate. Can you imagine 5,000 containers, every day?”

Logistics aside, there was also the little matter of danger: Popular knowledge tells us that many, if not all. tarantulas are poisonous. “People think that working with tarantulas is dangerous,” says Ryan’s mother, who accompanied her daughter on the set. “I took a lot of flak, that I would let my daughter in this movie! But I did a lot of reading about it, and tarantulas can give you no more than a bee sting.”

“Unless you’re really allergic to bees, you’ll be fine,” Kantor says. “If you’re allergic to bees, you’re allergic to spiders and vice versa. The only thing they can do is cause you to itch: that fur they have sheds on you.”

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KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS – SET OF 6 BRITISH LOBBY CARDS

Also contrary to popular opinion, tarantulas, at least the Chihuahua redlegs used in the film, are not aggressive by nature, but rather shy, retiring types. Spider wrangler Jim Brockett used air, via fans or through long tubes, to move the tarantulas in the desired direction for wider shots. For close-ups, it was mostly a matter of covering actors with spiders and hoping for the best. “They used gigantic fans to keep them running towards us,” remembers Ryan. “Because the Spiders didn’t want to be there doing what they were doing. “If you watch the movie, very, very carefully, you will see that the tarantulas are running away from the bodies and not toward Not all the them!” her mother spider bites laughs. “It was so Shatner funny!”

As it was cold special enough to occasionally snow at the Sedona and Cobra Verde, Arizona locations, the south-of-the-border stars did not take well to the cooler climate. The crew used heat lamps to keep the spiders warm between takes, which, combined with the many action scenes involving running, driving and stomping, succeeded in sacrificing many of the eight-legged actors to the B-movie gods.

“In my opinion, they did not observe any animal rights laws,” protests Ryan. “In between scenes, somebody would cover them all with little yogurt containers so they would stay in place, and then they would heat them. And they had a nasty tendency to melt! I remember a lot of them dying from that.

  POST PRODUCTION

In a move quite common in the ’70s but largely unseen today, Kingdom of the Spiders has a downbeat ending: As dawn breaks and Hansen pries a board off a window to survey the outside situation, he sees the entire town wrapped up in a cocoon, preserved as future tarantula food. Then the credits roll! “The movie comes off very well except for the end, when they ran out of money and couldn’t do the matte shot properly,” says Caillou. “It should have been more obvious that the whole village was in a cocoon.”

MUSIC

Another cost-cutting and timesaving measure was Kantor’s Scoring of the film using bits and pieces of existing film music, mostly from TV sources. As a composer and former head of the music department at Columbia Pictures, it was an easy hat for him to wear. “I used a lot of tracks by my friend Jerry Goldsmith,” Kantor explains. “He had done a series called Thriller which had a lot of scary music, so I used a lot of that.

(from “The Invaders” and “Back There”) – Jerry Goldsmith

“Startle cues” used in the film during the scenes with the spiders can also be heard in notable episodes of The Twilight Zone, including “To Serve Man” and “The Invaders”, as well as in at least one episode of The Fugitive. The country music songs heard on the radio in the movie, as well as over the opening and closing credits, were performed by country singer Dorsey Burnette.

Dorsey Burnette – Peaceful Verde Valley

DISTRIBUTION-RELEASE

The film only had a brief theatrical release, but more than made up for it by becoming something of a network TV staple. “The film cost $500,000, and the week after we got our answer print, ABC bought it for $850,000 for two runs,” Kantor recalls. “Of course, we told them that they couldn’t play it until it ran theatrically. It played theaters, and then a year and a half later, they played it. Then CBS, on the heels of ABC, bought it for another $75,000. So out of network television alone, we got $925,000 on a picture that cost $500,000. It has grossed to date about $17 million, which is not huge, but compared to what it cost, it is.” Kingdom was also nominated for Best Horror Film of 1977 by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Viewers lucky enough to catch the syndicated awards show on TV were treated to

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INTERVIEWS

Kingdom of the Spiders writers Stephen Lodge Jeffrey M. Sneller

  Stephen Lodge

 How did you and Jeff Sneller come up with the idea for Kingdom of the Spiders?

STEPHEN LODGE: I met Jeff in Tucson in 1967 when I was the set costumer on the TV series Dundee and the Calhane. He was about my age and, like many of the locals, he worked extra on any Western that came to town. Between then and the time we wrote Kingdom, he had moved to California, wiggled his way into the business and done a few pictures as a producer. One day in 1972, Jeff and I were sitting in the bar across from CBS Studio Center, and he asked, “You want to write a horror picture?” I had always wanted to write Westerns, but a horror picture was fine, so I said, “Sure!” Then he asked, “Well, what will we write it about?” I said, “I don’t know, What scares you the most?” There was a little beat, and then we both said, “Spiders!” We said it simultaneously, which made it very funny. Turns out both of us have been scared shitless of spiders since we were little kids! We went to the library and found a book on them, to use for research, and went over to his house in Studio City. We set up our typewriters on a table in the kitchen, across from each other, and started writing an outline.

When we got that done, we said, “Why don’t we just go ahead and write the Script?” I brought my typewriter over to his house every day, and he’d sit on one side of the table with an old manual and I sat on the other side with my old electric, we turned out I-don’t-know-how-many pages a day and did a first-draft script probably within a week or a week and a half.

At first, we included different types of spiders, but we finally decided to make them all tarantulas ’cause they were the ugliest ones. Our whole thing was, we would not have large, overgrown spiders; the ones in our script were just normal sized and would get into groups and attack humans. We didn’t want our script to be an exaggerated sci-fi/horror picture; we wanted something that could happen.

That was written in 1972, but it was years before anything happened with it

LODGE: Jeff was mixed up with some kind of a producer named Pat Rooney, but he just didn’t ever get anything together. Finally, two years later, Jeff called and said,

“I think we got a deal. It turned out to be with (music editor] Igo Kantor, who’d produced a couple of pictures, and Jeff was going to be one of the producers.

Kantor said that during the casting process, when actresses came into the production office, they’d be handed a tarantula to see how they’d react and Barbara Hale “fainted dead away”!

LODGE: No, it was Barbara Anderson. I can see where he made that mistake because both Barbara’s are famous for co-starring with Raymond Burr. Barbara Hale on Perry Mason and Barbara Anderson on Ironside. Yes, Barbara Anderson was horrified! This was in our Arachnid Productions office, which was in the old Selznick studio in Culver City.

Why was Kingdom shot in Arizona?

LODGE: Probably they got the best deal there. Usually that’s why anybody shoots anywhere. I wasn’t on the production team. The only job they could offer me was wardrobe and not at my regular rate. I took the job for about half price because I wanted to be with the show, to see what was going to happen.

By the time it went into production in 1977, other writers had been involved.

LODGE: I was never asked to rewrite anything; by the time I got there, they had already shopped it out to Alan Caillou, who was more of an actor than a screenwriter, and this Richard Robinson, who I don’t believe I ever met. He was a Florida guy. I think. Caillou I met because he came out and visited for maybe a week, smoking a pipe and acting like he was The Big Writer. First he had done some rewriting, and then they brought Robinson in.

Caillou told me that your script, the one he was asked to revise, was “absolutely unworkable”!

LODGE: If the script was unworkable, why the hell did they buy it?

Did you like nature-runs-amok movies of this sort?

LODGE: Well, I wasn’t really a sci-fi fan. I had seen The Birds, and yes, there were a few things we stole out of that. But [the makers of The Birds] probably stole some things out of somethin’ else too ! It’s done all the time, believe me.

In Kingdom, there are also a few things stolen out of Jaws but that couldn’t have been you, because you did your writing years before there was a Jaws.

LODGE: Those moments were things the other guys [Caillou and/or Robinson) put in. I was just now thumbing through our screenplay, the one Jeff and I wrote, and noticing some of the differences between it and the movie. In ours, there was a veterinarian named Hansen, who was an older man, and a hero named Peter Cook; in the rewriting, they combined the two characters into one, played by William Shatner. In our script, Peter was a lawyer who came to Camp Verde to see his little daughter and his ex-wife; in the movie, our ex-wife ended up being the wife of Shatner’s late brother, and so the little girl became his niece. The movie features all the stuff we wrote, but manipulated around enough to make someone think it was different, if they ever even saw the original, Those characters were changed; in our draft, the cattle rancher played by Woody Strode had a son, and so on.

During shooting, did you get much cooperation from the Arizona locals?

LODGE: Oh, sure, you always do. Just hand over a little money! There was no studio work; everything was shot on location in Sedona and Camp Verde. In Sedona were the cabins where Tiffany (Bolling’s) character stayed, and where all the people are trapped at the end. That lodge was up in Oak Creek Canyon, where John McCain lives. It was a pretty exclusive tourist place, but for about a week it was all ours. They fed us every day out of the kitchen; the best food we had was there. We also shot in Sedona the scenes where Shatner, Tiffany and the little girl, Natasha Ryan, ride their horses and have a picnic. The rest was Camp Verde, which is a nice drive from Sedona.

If a bunch of people came to my town to shoot a movie and brought 5,000 tarantulas, I don’t think I’d be pleased. Was everybody there happy about what you were doing?

LODGE: First of all, it was 2,000 tarantulas. Other people who were on that movie like to say now there were 5,000, but on the day we started shooting, it was 2,000. Every one of them was individually kept in a plastic container, the kind you’d get if you went to the deli and said, “Give me a pound of coleslaw.” There was wet cotton in each container so the spider wouldn’t dry out, maybe a couple of crickets so it could eat and there were holes cut in the tops. These containers were kept stacked in the back of a truck. They died easy: tarantulas live in little holes in the ground, they’re not used to being out and about like they are in the movie. They were Mexican red spiders, so I assume they came from Mexico. Our “spider wranglers’” came up with them.

If one of your spiders bit me, what would I get, besides the bite?

LODGE: It’s like a bee sting. But what the spider wranglers would do was clip off the spiders’ chelicerae, the little fangs and they’d die from that. If the spiders were going to be on somebody in a scene, they’d first clip them so that person would not get bitten.

Once their fangs were clipped, how soon would they die?

LODGE: I have no clue. But there’s no way for them to kill their prey if they don’t have those.

Walk me through the shooting of, say, an outdoor scene with a couple of dozen spiders running around.

LODGE: We’d have a bunch of those plastic containers and take the tops off and put ’em on the ground upside down, without letting the spider out, so it kept the spider in one place. Then when we were ready to shoot, somebody would say, “OK, run and pick up all the containers, and 15 crew guys, or however many were there, would dash in and start lifting them, letting the spiders run wild. This was an independent picture, there wasn’t any union bullshit, so (the crew guys! could do all this. Everybody would run in and pick up the containers and get out of the frame, and then the filming could begin. Then, once they got the shot and the director yelled cut, somebody would say, “All right, go cover ’em!” and we’d run back in and put the containers upside down over all the spiders. None of ’em ever escaped, The wranglers would go in then and put the tops on the containers. Inside it was a different story; it was usually just a few spiders at a time. Like when you see a bunch on the hanging light bulb in the cellar of the lodge. I guess they glued those spiders to the bulb, and they were obviously killed when the bulb exploded. And then in the kitchen, when Lieux Dressler (playing the lodge owner) throws boiling water on the spiders in the sink, you saw ’em scurry because it was boiling water. See, when we first got (to Arizona), I figured people hated spiders as much as I did, and it wouldn’t bother them to see one of these f*kers squished. So we did a shot of Shatner running around a corner and stepping on one, right in closeup, and out squirted all this green shit. When we saw it in dailies, it was, like…really yucky.

I don’t remember now whether Tiffany Bolling saw (the spider-squishing on the set or in dailies, but she said, “Oh my God, what are you doing? These are little critters! In her mind, she made ’em into animals, just like PETA has done now. They were nothin’ but frickin’ spiders as far as I was concerned. But after we’d done a few scenes, she made a big stink about that, so everybody had to start being careful with them.

I guess those were the days when you didn’t have to worry too much about animal rights organizations, yes?

LODGE: Well, they’re not animals, they’re spiders! There was no ASPCA type organization for spiders in those days; they were insects, like a fly, I “love” this whole new bullshit thing where anything that breathes, even if it can kill ya, is considered an animal. Or “a critter,” as Tiffany would have said. It’s like when Obama Swatted a fly, and people bitched about that whole thing. Isn’t that ridiculous?

Once spiders overran an interior location, like the lodge, how were you able to be sure you got ’em all out again?

LODGE: Inside, they were much easier to control than outside, because we’d never have a thousand of ’em indoors. We probably never even had a thousand at one time outside, even for the scene in Camp Verde where the tarantulas are attacking all the people on the street. In that scene, a ton of the spiders in the distance were rubber, and then the ones in the really far distance were stencils: people went around stenciling them on walls with spray paint. Go to Camp Verde today and you can probably still find some! Also, every spider that died was saved, and for the scene where all the people are running down the street, they hired three local girls to glue dead ones on the extras.

Can you talk a little about some of the cast members?

LODGE: Shatner was OK, he was friendly enough. He raised horses and liked to ride them, so maybe that’s why [one of the Kingdom rewriters had his character doing that. I’d worked with him before, on a movie of the week [1973’s The Horror at 37,000 Feet}, and I did a Star Trek [“Whom Gods Destroy”] for a few days one time. But I didn’t hang out with him. I don’t think he hung out with anybody.

He was aloof?

LODGE: Actors behave that way. It’s like they think they’re better than you. One who never did was Jim Arness. When I worked on Gunsmoke, he’d eat with the crew. They’d call lunch and he’d run to the catering truck, trying to get there faster than anybody else! Meanwhile, other stars have to have their food brought to them in their private dressing rooms. Anyway, on Kingdom, I took all the clothes over to Shatner’s house and we fit him over there. Marcy Lafferty, his wife at the time. played his widowed sister-in-law. She was fine. Natasha Ryan (playing Lafferty’s little daughter] loved the spiders; she thought they were great. For one scene, they put her on a bed and threw all the spiders around her, and it didn’t seem to bother her at all!

So, cast wise, everybody was OK with the spiders?

LODGE: The only one who was really afraid of them was the actress who played the vacationing Colorado wife at the lodge [Adele Malis). I had brought with me plastic suits that would cover the wearer from wrists to neck to ankles-the kind people used to wear when they ran, so they could sweat to lose weight, I brought a bunch of those in case some of the actors wanted ’em, but she was the only one who wanted to wear one of those under her clothes.

Tiffany Bolling was all right, I guess. They actors and actresses all have an opinion of themselves that’s a little bigger than they are; she was probably happy as shit she was doin’ a movie, but acted like she’d done it all her life. She played the part well.

Lieux Dressler was great, wasn’t she? I’ve run into her at a couple of festivals, and it was like old times. Woody Strode was great too. He liked his wine, and he was just as cool and casual as you see him on the screen. His wife was played by Altovisc Davis, the wife of Sammy Davis Jr. This was one of her first pictures and she was very professional, didn’t have any problems. When I fit her, I marked everything and took her outfits to my mother’s house and I had my mom do all the alterations. I’m used to working at & studio where you’ve got tailors, etc., but on Kingdom we couldn’t do that on the budget we were on. It was crazy

The budget: How low was it?

LODGE: This is how things would happen: I asked for an extra motel room to use as a wardrobe space, and when I got there, of course they didn’t have two rooms, so I ended up with all these costumes hanging in mine. Everything would happen like that; there were always lies, just to get rid of ya.

Did you like Cardos, overall?

LODGE: I gotta hand it to him, “Bud” Cardos was fine. He was very into it, he was nice, he was pleasant and he knew what he wanted. I’d never worked with him I’d never even heard of him before but he was a stuntman who had also directed a couple of little pictures before that. The scene in Kingdom where the runaway car takes out two of the legs of the water tower and it falls over and crushes the sheriff’s car—that was “Bud” Cardos; it seemed like all he was interested in was gettin’ to that stunt. They had the legs of the tower all rigged with joints and whatever, so when the car hit it, the tower would go down right where they wanted it to go. Whitey Hughes (the stunt driver) had to nail it at the right angle and so on. “Bud” was so focused on that, sometimes you almost wondered if he was really interested in the rest of the show! But he was, and he did a good job.

Where did you Hollywood folks stay when you were making the movie?

LODGE: In a motel in Sedona. It was a class place with a restaurant and bar but, as I mentioned, they didn’t have enough money for a wardrobe room, so I slept with a couple of racks of clothes. According to my diary, I was there from March 21, 1977, through April 22 month.

What was there to do in that part of Arizona when you weren’t making the movie?

LODGE: You really were always making the movie, and that included at night ’cause you were always talkin’ about what you were gonna do the next day and all that jazz. If you drank, you drank; if you met somebody you liked, you screwed… My very good friend Hoke Howell, we got him a part in that (as a thick gas station attendant), and once Hoke got there, we went out to dinner whenever we had the chance. That’s the way it is on every show you go on; it’s a vacation, not a location, for a lot of people. Especially the married ones. The married ones always have to fall in love with some of the locals!

Where did you see the movie for the first time?

LODGE: At a drive-in in Burbank where it was second-billed to a thing called The Swarm, which had Michael Caine. I believe the people liked Kingdom better. It’s hard to tell that in a drive-in, but that’s the impression I got. Nobody drove out, anyway! I went with Hoke Howell and a couple of other guys.

To your mind, which scenes worked the best?

LODGE: One scene I liked was where the lady entomologist (Bollingl gets out of the shower and, with nothing on but a towel, goes over to a dressing table and opens the drawer and finds a spider. In our original script, she opens a cabinet over the sink and it’s at eye level, staring at her which happened to me once in Simi Valley. Talk about frightening to have a spider at eye level. I had just gotten up that morning, and I went in the bathroom stark naked and opened the medicine cabinet to get my razor, and I screamed! The girl I was with walked in there, got a piece of Kleenex, squished it and threw it in the toilet. Anyway, in the original script the entomologist goes up to a cabinet and opens it and finds the spider, but they changed it to a dressing table and a drawer. In both scripts, she had the same cool and collected reaction; she was the spider expert and they were her friends. Just like they were to Bolling in real life when she called ’em “the critters.”

I also liked the gas station scene with Hoke Howell, and Bill Foster as the guy with the cow in the back seat of his car. Earl was our character, a little comedy relief thrown in. So the movie worked fine for me. First of all, as long as a movie gets made that you had something to do with, it makes you happy. There isn’t anything in it that really peeves me; and I have to be honest, I thought (the rewriters made it better by combining the two characters, the lawyer and the veterinarian, into one. It made more of a star part out of the leading man.

According to Kantor, between playing theatrically and on network TV, Kingdom made a lot of money.

LODGE: I made practically no money off of it, but I realize now that I got screwed more by myself than by them, because of my ignorance. But it was still fun. For the parade scene in The Honkers, we had 17,000 people we brought together to be on the sidelines, and we had a real 72-unit parade that we could actually control and run around the block three times to get all the shots we needed. I was on the set when that happened, and when the drums rolled and the band began playing and the spectators started screaming and the parade started down the street, I had this great feeling inside, like, ‘We’ve really done something.”

Jeffrey M. Sneller and Stephen Lodge, the producer and co writers of 1977’s “Kingdom Of The Spiders”, on “Flashback” to discuss the film. In this segment, they tell just how crucial the casting of William Shatner really turned out to be.

  Jeffrey M. Sneller

You mentioned your previous science fiction work.

SNELLER:“The one that I’m most proud of and that I talk of most frequently because it was nominated for many awards including the science fiction award – and we lost the award only to Star Wars, but that made me very proud – that was called Kingdom of the Spiders, which I did with William Shatner. There have been others, but that’s the one that I talk about. That was 1977, it was released.”

Did you cast William Shatner because of his association with the SF genre?

SNELLER:“ “No, actually it was… I say yes and no, because Kingdom of the Spiders was more a sci-fi adventure than science fiction fantasy and it was a completely different role for Bill Shatner. He played something that was a counterpoint to the characters he’s associated with, and that was what attracted him to the role and what attracted us to him.”

Did you use effects spiders or did you have a spider wrangler?

SNELLER:“ “You know, in those days effects weren’t nearly as developed as they are today. It was done through the old process of generation of film after film, and creating those visual effects; it was done the old-fashioned way. So we actually imported I think 5,000 live tarantulas from Honduras, Guatemala, all over the world. Today of course we could have worked with maybe 50 and generated the rest through computer-generated animation, and had as good, if not better, results. It would have been more controllable than having 5,000 spiders crawling all over the country! So we relied on live tarantulas in that one, as well as background models to fill in space in the background. That’s the way that one was done.”

Kingdom of the Spiders was playing in London when Star Wars opened. When you first saw Star Wars, how did you react as a maker of SF/fantasy films?

SNELLER:“ “I was blown away. George Lucas was so far ahead of his time – as he has continued to be – that it was overwhelming. So I was really very proud when the Science Fiction Academy nominated us for best science fiction film of that year. And I didn’t feel too bad losing to Star Wars! But there was also a difference: Star Wars was a $9 million – today I think it’s $90 million – Twentieth Century Fox production, and ours was a $500,000 independent production, so I felt that it was in good company.”

Jeffrey Sneller and Stephen Lodge, the producer and co writers of 1977’s “Kingdom Of The Spiders” joined me on “Flashback” to discuss the film. In this segment, the infamous ending of the movie is discussed and Jeffrey Sneller reveals an amusing fact about how the ending was “re imagined” when it was released in foreign markets.

Kingdom of the Spiders – Novelization

Kingdom of the Spiders – Novelization an unauthorized audiobook recording narrated by Jon Olsen

REFERENCES and SOURCES

http://mjsimpson-films.blogspot.com/2015/03/interview-jeffrey-sneller.html

http://templeofschlock.blogspot.com/2009/06/breakfast-with-tiffany-interview-with.html

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Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) Retrospective SUMMARY Dr. Robert "Rack" Hansen, a veterinarian in rural Verde Valley, Arizona, receives an urgent call from a local farmer, Walter Colby.