Hyped on the back cover of the original DVD as "A drive-in classic!", KISS OF THE TARANTULA is one of the many WILLARD rip-offs to crawl out of the 1970s, this time with lethal spiders instead of rats and a awkward blonde female rather than an awkward blonde male.

The film starts off with a flashback of a little girl who learns that her mom (Beverly Eddins) plans to off her father with the help of his brother (who the mother happens to be sleeping with). She unleashes her venomous pet tarantulas and mom ends up dead on the bed. Luckily too-tall dad (Herman Wallner) runs the local mortuary (which is situated in their home) so the body doesn't have to be moved too far. Years later, Susan Bradley (Suzanne Ling) grows up to be an attractive blonde teenager, but is still weird, still something of an outcast, and still likes to play with big hairy spiders. When three smart asses barge into her home and badger her caged pets, she plots a creepy crawly revenge. Two of them are besieged by the buggers while double-dating at a drive-in movie (where a double feature of the first two “Dirty Hairy” movies is playing), and the third guy is attacked while working in a closed air duct.

While scenes like this are limited and staged in a rather shoddy manner, much of the film involves the bizarre relationship between Susan and her lusting, incestuous uncle, who also happens to head the local police department and covers up her crimes. He's played sleazily well by Eric Mason (real name: Ernesto Macias), a familiar Mexican-born character actor usually portraying detectives in such 1970s era schlock as GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE and SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM. Aside from Mason and Ling – a lovely actress with appeal who unfortunately only made one feature – the rest of the cast is second-rate (mostly regional thespians who did little else for the big screen) and the thrills are too seldom.

KISS OF THE TARANTULA is one of the first videos I rented during the days of "ma and pa" rental shops, and it was the final feature of a marathon that lasted until 6 in the A.M. I wasn't too impressed then, and I’m not altogether impressed now, but the film has that undeniable, unequaled "late night" TV quality that only certain low budget 1970s horror films can evoke. This can no doubt be attributed to producer Daniel Cady (who also concocted the story), as he also gave us DREAM NO EVIL, GARDEN OF THE DEAD and especially GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE, all directed by the late John Hayes. Aside from Mason, this film has several actors associated with Hayes’ features, including William Guhl and Jay Scott (aka Bo Richards) who here plays one of the long-in-the-tooth teen troublemakers (he was the first victim of Michael Pataki’s vicious bloodsucker in GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE). KISS OF THE TARANTULA also includes one of the most inventive prolonged death/murder scenes of any film of this sort.

VCI has KISS OF THE TARANTULA out on DVD for years (after releasing it on VHS back in the early 1980s), and although the company's Blu-rays have been inconsistent in terms of picture quality, this is one of the better ones. Remastered and restored in a 2K scan from the original 35mm negative, the film is presented in 1080p HD in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Colors are correct and distinct, grain levels are proper, and the source materials used for the transfer are in impeccable condition. Black levels are not the deepest, the contrast can be a bit high in parts, but there’s no noticeable artifacting or evidence of heavy crush and the transfer is very satisfactory overall for this low budget piece. The mono LPCM 2.0 audio is surprisingly effective for such a cheap movie, with clear dialog, and the music is surprisingly robust. Optional SDH English subtitles are included. A standard DVD that utilizes the same HD transfer is also included in the packaging.