SNAKE PEOPLE (1971) (http://imdb.com/title/tt0063142/) - With the recent buzz about SNAKES ON A PLANE (2006) I thought I'd pull out this little Mexican/USA production starring Boris Karloff. It's part of my 50 Chilling Movie Pack. The movie starts off good with a midget sacrificing a chicken and later there is a voodoo ceremony involving a lady who dances around flaming torches at night were someone is about to be sacrificed and a voodoo funeral procession. In one scene you actually see a snake bite into someone, but the snake looks like a boa which isn't posionous. The problem with the movie is that there are to many snake dance scenes and the lack of story make this film almost a total waste. Worth a look if you get a chance. This film could have been a good walking dead type film, but they messed it up. Director Jack Hill helps in the direction of this odd film. Boris Karloff is looking frail and the film fails to capitalize on his part in the film.
(http://www.1000misspenthours.com/posters/postersn-z/snakepeople.jpg)
Iv'e seen this! Along with Cauldren of Blood,and another obscure Mexican film (I'llhave to look it up in my Psychotronic Movie Guide) Is one of the Kings last films.I noticed on the Mystery Channel,last Saterday,they had SSSSS...(1974) on as well.It was quite the stinker,with Dirk Benidict playing the most clueless idiot on planet earth,being injected by Strother Martin(COOL HAND LUKE) with cobra venom,which,as anybody knows,will turn you into a giant cobra man.The makeup was done by John(Planet of the Apes)Chambers.If you wanna see a dumb naked jock singing "On Top of OL'Smokey" inna shower,and then being bit by a black mamba,this is the movie for you.I,a fool for bad movie punishment,watched this,FOOD of the GODS(1975,withthat great thespian/ex child evangilist Marjoe Gortner) and SQUIRM(Classic drive-in fun) last weekend.
This is part of that quartet of Mexican films that Karloff shot his parts of in LA when he was quite frail and near death, right? Most were released after he was gone, IIRC, and after his more respectable "last" film "Targets." It used to annoy me that people would ignore these other films just to claim Karloff went out on a high note. I've yet to see any of them, and everything I've read about them says that even the best of them are only mediocre, but the man did most of his work in the horror, scifi, and suspense genres, so unless these films reached so deeper level of trashiness or were notoriously vile, which they apparently aren't, why overlook them?
You gotta give ol'Boris credit! The man was near death-yet he was a trooper untill the end.
Or someone might have needed the bread.
But, yeah, I'd like to think it was that he loved the work or the people that much.
This could have been worthwhile. They have the potential imagery, but they lacked a coherent storyline, which basically meandered in different directions to evetually come to a conclusion the viewer had guessed within the first 15 minutes of the film. The direction drags and makes the film quite boring. If they perhaps cut about 30 minutes from the film and made it more of an hour long Outer Limits episode, it could have worked much better.
I remember watching one of these -- The Scarlet something-or-other -- on the big screen in Virginia in the '60's. Christopher Lee was in it as well, and I so wanted it to be good, but it was pretty dreadful, even by my pre-teen standards.
Endless Mexican "sex" scenes, which didn't really show anything. Really, the only part I remember is Lee and Karloff sitting around pretending to be great wine aficiandos.
Mortality is a b***h . . .
peter johnson/cenny draine
Peter, I think the movie you are thinking of is "Curse of the Crimson Cult," though it did go by other names. As it also had Christopher Lee in it, as well as Barbara Steele and Michael Gough.
It has nothing to do with Boris' four Mexican films, which were made two years later.
His four Mexican films, though they go by different titles, are "Blind Man's Bluff," "Snake People," "Alien Terror," and "Chamber of Fear."
yep, that was THE CRIMSON CULT (1968) (http://imdb.com/title/tt0062833/), but wasn't one of the Mexican films. CRIMSON CULT was ok and had that good 60's feel to it even if made in England and some well known horror stars.
(http://www.granadamovieposters.com/photos/crimsoncultOS.gif)
I quite enjoyed Crimson Cult as well.It was touted as Karloff's last film.Of course he made the Mex horror fliks later...but,thats exploitation!
Okay, I remember it as being so disappointing that I thought it just HAD to be a no-budget Mexican film --
Perhaps I was too young to appreciate it for what it was, though my exposure to big-screen Corman and Hammer had by that time pretty much spoiled me --
peter johnson/denny crane