Isle of the Snake People (1968)

ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE or SNAKE PEOPLE (1968-1971) stars the great Boris Karloff in one of this final big screen performance before his death. By this stage in his career, Karloff was in ill health so he signed up for a co American/Mexican "B" movie called ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE. The end result (to be quite frank with the reader of this review) is one giant CLUSTER FUCK OF A GODAMM MOVIE! Holy shit this movie was fucked up, hell half the time it felt like one half of the movie was on LSD while the other half was going through a stage of withdrawal. I'm honestly bewilder from what I've just seen in this film, god lord what a Technicolor mess of a film. Plot summary: The plot of this trippy fuck fest involves a police captain and the Niece of a Plantation owner arrive on a small island only to find the local police force (including the Lieutenant) are sacred by a mysterious local Voodoo cult where a viscous snake dancer and a midget priest and their followers worship there demon god Damballah raise the dead for their own vile purposes. The strange thing is Niece's uncle the Plantation owner Carl Van Molder (Karloff) has the snake dancer working for him. When the Capitan tries to restore law and order to the island but the cult unhappy with this unleash and army of cannibalistic zombie women upon the islands residents. Thing turn sinister when the Niece is kidnapped by the cult (like every cliched film) the movies hero's (the Captain and the Lieutenant) to end this tropical nightmare once and for all. Ha that's exactly what this movie is a horrible tropical nightmare. I'm amazed that some great star like Karloff would end his career with a shitty movie like this. There some purely fucked up moments in this film that begs the question "What were the makers of this shit fest thinking?" So I'm about to do something I have never done before with my reviews I'm going to list the most weirdest moments of this film. 1. The Opening Sequence: Yeah that's right the opening of this film is completely fucked up. Anyway the movie opens on some cheesy shot of a world map with some tacky narrator carrying on about "the dangerous religions of the world". The next thing the film cuts to is some midget voodoo priest (in a top hat and sunglasses) performes a weird religious ritual were a chicken is beheaded. I'm not too sure but I think a real chicken was killed due the headless chicken flapping its wings a spit second after the Midget cuts off the chicken head off camera. If my eye didn't deceive me this movie may have answer that old urban myth 'if someone was to cut off a chickens head it will still walk about" or in this movies case the chicken will still flap its wings after losing its head. If I'm correct the movie just violated my mental health before the opening credits even rolled. 2. The Necrophilia subtext: One of the movies villains has a female zombie slave which he tries to feel up but thank god Karloff's character appears to put a stop to it. I know what you are thinking dear reader WTF! 3. Self Bi - Curiosity: my apologies if I offend anyone but I don't know how to properly describe the dream sequence properly. Ok the leading lady has a nightmare (induced by the snake dancer) were she is in a coffin, exits said coffin, sees an identical coffin next to her and opens the lid only to find herself in the coffin with snake sliding all over her and then the two for no reason start to French kiss each other. I don't know what else to label this nightmare sequence except for Self Bi - Curiosity. Final thoughts on ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE or SNAKE PEOPLE (1968-1971): not much to say with this one except for it's a horrible film only lifted by Karloff's performance and presents (even though he's only in the film for 20% of it). I'm not sure I would say it's a so-bad-it's-so-good movie but it's not a so-bad-it's -unbearable-film; I think Snake people falls somewhere in the middle of the two. I'm not going to recommend this film to anyone except for any Boris Karloff fan or the films writer, exploitation cinema legend Jack Hill (the writer of the Big Doll House and Coffy) curious about this cinematic shame of their carriers. 30% out of 100%