Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo

 


Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977)

The Plot: A cargo of dangerous spiders, a deadly cargo, if you will, is released on an unsuspecting small town

In 1962, Jim Marshall founded Marshall Amplification ushering in a new era of amplifiers that super charged rock music. 15 years later, his invention helped save the small town of Finlayville, CA from  deadly infestation of venomous spiders. Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo starts off innocently enough when coffee bean importers and totally law abiding citizens, Dr, Johnny Fever and Tom Atkins, procure the permits to import a large sum of coffee beans by legitimately paying the local law enforcement representative a fee. Unbeknownst to these totally by the books businessmen, the coffee bean cargo was infested with deadly spiders. The find this out soon enough when the litter buggers do the venomous thing and bite them mid flight causing them to crash the airplane  thus releasing their....deadly cargo!

Two legitimate businessmen

The released tarantulas then start menacing the local population, albeit slowly as they must traverse miles from the plane crash site into the town. However, once the killings start, the locals are on the case! The local doctor at first thinks its a pandemic until finding the telltale signs of 2 fang bite marks. Luckily, he eliminates vampires right away and is left with one conclusion: tarantulas. Of course, a spider expert then identifies these as not tarantulas, but actually banana spiders, but I guess Banana Spiders: The Deadly Cargo doesn't have quite the ring to it as Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo does. 
Forget pickleball, have you ever tried to play tarantula ball?

It's soon discovered via an Encyclopedia Brittanica (the 1970s version of Wikipedia) that the sounds of the banana spiders natural enemies, the wasps can render them into a catatonic state. Soon the spiders have infested the local orange packaging plant because the Brittanica also mentions they love oranges. A trap is soon set by the locals. But how to amplify the sounds of the wasps into this cavernous packaging plant you ask? Why by amplifying them though stacks of Marshall amps of course! And fortunately for the good folks of Finlayville, CA, this works like a charm! The spiders are stunned into motionlessness and then drowned in buckets of alcohol. Well , it made perfect sense at the time! And the town was saved! So next time you see a guitarist jamming through a Marshall amp, think back to the the fine folks of Finlayville and how the amps not only gave them great, loud rock music, but also saved them from the deadly banana spiders!
Spiders love oranges!

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo may be a misnomer, but it is a fun little movie that is light on gore an violence, although it has no qualms of killing a 12 year old boy. It's science that saves the day and all of the town put their differences aside and pull together. We could all learn a lesson from the fine folks of Finlayville CA. I give Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo 6 Marshall stacks.







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