Kingdom of the Spiders: Absolute terror, just from the poster

What did I know about Kingdom of the Spiders? Most of it was that poster. Most of it still is.

I saw that poster hanging on a wall in Waimate. It looked really bloody scary. I didn't know what it was about, and the poster looked a bit ragged, like it had been plastered on the wall for a while. But I was 6 or 7 years old - several years after the film had been released - and that poster gave me the serious shits.

And somehow, somewhere, I saw a clip from that film. I can't remember what it was, and just have the faintest image of spiders coming in under the door of a ramshackle wooden shed, and that's it. But it was utterly terrifying.

Obviously, I hadn't seen much in the way of scary movies at that age - other than the Hammer House of Horror episodes that I would sometimes get to see when I faked being sick and stayed up later with Mum and Dad - but that idea about spiders turning on humanity and wrecking havoc looked like the scariest goddamn thing I had ever seen.

I think it really hit home, because spiders were a real thing that I saw every day. And they were already a little scary, and I'd been told how some of them could bite you with poisonous fangs. They were in the corner of my room, they were everywhere.

It's the same way the suburban horror of the 80s slasher movie would hit home so much, because they always looked like they were happening on the same street as me. A horrifying familiarity.  

I've watched other films about spiders attacking humanity, and haven't had a problem with them, but I've never been able to go back and watch the Kingdom. I know it's probably rubbish in a way I can't even imagine, but I don't want to give up the terror I still have.