Tuesday, June 5, 2018

THE EVIL SNAKE GIRL (1976) ** ½


I'm a sucker for movies about evil snakes.  Films about snake girls are even more up my alley.  Imagine my excitement when I found a flick called The Evil Snake Girl.  Unfortunately, it just couldn’t live up to its awesome title, but there are enough goofy moments here to make it worthwhile for B movie fans.

Manda (Rosemarie Gil) is born with snakes for hair.  Her parents are understandably freaked out, but they try to make the best of it.  When she gets older, Manda wears a scarf on her head to hide the squirmy snakes.  Not only does she have a head full of snakes, she has the ability to control snakes with her mind and make them do her bidding.  While walking home one day, a bully tries to make her remove the scarf and gets bitten.  After he dies, villagers show up at Manda’s door brandishing torches and screaming, "Give us the child!"  (Movies about angry villagers screaming, “Give us the child!” are another favorite subgenre of mine.)

So far, so great, but the movie is just unable to keep up the oddball momentum.  Now, I didn’t mind the subplot where Manda takes charge of a gang of thugs to act as her muscle.  (As if mind-controlled snakes weren’t enough.)  I liked the parts detailing Manda’s quest for revenge.  (The scene where a guy leans in to kiss Manda and winds up getting bit square on the lips by a snake is among the highlights.)  However, things get increasingly spotty once the flick turns into a martial arts hybrid.  

As a horror film, The Evil Snake Girl has a nasty streak to it that makes it enjoyable.  As a Kung Fu flick, it lacks… ahem… kick.  The action is rather ho-hum and the fight choreography leaves something to be desired.  It’s not bad or anything, it just seems rather staid next to the stuff with the evil snake girl.  The subplot with the Kung Fu Master taking it upon himself to rid the world of Manda works slightly better than the scenes where he beats up random people.  I dug the finale where he Kung Fus a bunch of mind-controlled snakes.  I just wish there was more of this brand of nuttiness throughout the picture.  It also doesn’t help that (SPOILER) the evil snake woman dies when she accidentally falls off a cliff.  Talk about anticlimactic!  

AKA:  Devil Woman.  AKA:  Manda the Snake Girl.

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