Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 21, 2022

Stuart Hagmann's "Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo" (1977) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The only bonus feature on the release is an exclusive new audio commentary recorded by critics Amanda Reyes, Dan Budnik, and Nate Johnson. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

They say that a simple story, even one that has been told many times before, can make a great film. It is true. But you need an excellent writer to work with the story and make it the centerpiece of this great film. Shouldn’t this be too obvious? Well, not necessarily. You don’t even have to dig deep into the annals of cinema to discover countless examples of simple but very good stories that have been turned into very bad films. What if you just have an awful director behind the camera? This is a very common scenario, especially nowadays, but it is one where the story and the excellent writer working with it instantly become utterly irrelevant.

The story that is told in Stuart Haggman’s made-for-TV film Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo isn’t a special one, but it could have produced a nice genre gem. Apparently, this story was put together by two writers, John Groves and Guerdon Trueblood, and then made into a screenplay that Haggman went to work with. At least this is the official version of how Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo was conceived, which is almost certainly inaccurate. No, I don’t have any factual information confirming that Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo has a very different production history, but I can easily tell that what Haggman shot could not have been the story that was handed to him. Why? I will explain, but first I would like to provide you with a short summation of the story it tells.

Somewhere in rural Ecuador, two American opportunists (Tom Atkins and Howard Hesseman) load up their plane with hundreds of pounds of cheap coffee and then prepare to fly back to California where they intend to sell it to local distributors. It is a simple deal that will make the men a ton of money. However, together with the coffee, they unknowingly pick up giant tarantulas that can kill a human being in seconds. Before they take off, the Americans also agree to take on board three future illegal immigrants.

On the way to California, the tarantulas kill the immigrants and bite one of the Americans, causing the plane to crash near the small town of Meadowmere. Now out of the plane, the tarantulas begin attacking and killing the clueless residents of Meadowmere, too. Bert Springer (Claude Akins), chief of the local Fire Department, attempts to take control of the situation after he consults with Doc Hodgins (Pat Hingle), who correctly concludes that some sort of an exotic insect is responsible for the killings, but the chaos threatens to collapse the local agricultural business, which is the main source of revenue for the people of Meadowmere.

As you can tell, the story reveals plenty of potential to produce the kind of thrills that these types of genre films need to impress. Unfortunately, from the moment the plane crashes Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo begins stuttering and making endless wrong decisions while trying to excite. The obvious question is: why exactly?

The story that is being told is very simple. However, it is unnecessarily fractured into contrasting pieces that pull Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo in different directions at the same time. As a result, the genre material with the horror flavor is routinely suppressed by conventional drama of the kind that was very common for prime time ‘70s TV.

This version of the story, however, could not have been the one Haggman agreed to make into a film. It is clearly the creation of someone that sought to meet some broadcasting standards, which is why its character arcs, continuity, and stylistic coherence are very problematic.

Apparently, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo was lensed by Robert Morrison, who is remembered for his contributions to the vastly superior Police Story and Hawaii Five-O.

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.34:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tarantula: The Deadly Cargo arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from a new 2K master that was prepared on behalf of Freemantle Media International. Unfortunately, I have to say that it is quite disappointing. Why? Because even though it is not plagued by problematic digital tinkering it is graded in a way that makes practically the entire film look oddly unbalanced, artificial, and bad. For example, all of the action throughout the film is supposed to take place during a warm summer, but the current grade introduces various cold primaries and nuances that give the visuals a very distinct steely appearance. Needless to say, not only are key native color values lost, but the overall color balance is wrong as well. See an excellent example in screencapture #4 where the red Fire Department truck now looks orange. (Similar strange color anomalies can be seen on the recent release of Frank Tashlin's The Girl Can't Help It as well). Also, the native dynamic range of the visuals is destabilized, which is why instead of having proper black levels many reveal flat grays. You can see examples of gamma issues in screencaptures #2, 5, 11, and 12. I noticed one quite bit splice/damage mark early into the film, plus some minor specks and blemishes. Image stability is good. All in all, it is pretty obvious that the party that graded the current master did a lot of guessing work, which is why the film does not have a convincing period appearance on Blu-ray. My score is 2.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I did not encounter any issues to report in our review. The audio was very clear, clean, stable, and easy to follow. I thought that the overall dynamic intensity of the lossless track was very good for a made-for-TV film from the 1970s as well.

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by Amanda Reyes, Dan Budnik, and Nate Johnson, hosts of The Made for TV Mayhem podcast.

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I found Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo quite bland and disappointingly safe even for late-nght TV. I am quite certain that the story it tells isn't the original story Stuart Haggman agreed to work with because it prevents the film from developing a proper identity. My guess is that the original story was altered numerous times and then 'improved', and finally someone else that was not initially attached to the project determined how Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo should look before it was broadcast on TV. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a new 2K master that is quite problematic.