The Killer Snakes

Killer Snakes is very strong and mean spirited stuff, but great film for fans of sleaze and ultra weird cinema. A young boy has suffered all his life. He had a traumatic childhood as his parents fought and had sick sex games in front of their child. After his childhood, he was nothing but a loser in some lousy job kicked in the head all the time. He was beaten, cheated, humiliated and laughed at all the time and everyday, and he definitely didn't have any friends. Friends of human beings, no, but soon he found himself different kind of friends, very slithery ones. He started to communicate with snakes, cobras mainly, which were plenty in his neighborhood and its restaurant's kitchen, in which the snakes were horribly mutilated by chef in order to remove some parts of the creature and feed them to customers. Our protagonist starts to make friends and talk with snakes, and starts to protect them. Then he starts to use them against his enemies, practically against everyone..

This film is weird and very dementedly disturbing. I'm almost sure the film makers (well, the director at least) was in some kind of dope during filming since there are so outrageous visions and use of lights that create an atmosphere one would probably feel after taking hard drugs. There are many different colors and strange soundtrack, but the settings are also very dirty and off putting, and this is the first Hong Kong movie, I saw the city depicted this dirty and loathsome. There are poor people, prostitutes and pimps and all kind of scum that live in big cities. The widescreen photography is not too inventive, but since the over all tune is so unique and hallucinatory, I cannot but appreciate this sick little gem.

And then the snakes, which are of course real and plenty. If you scare snakes, DO NOT even think of watching this film since you will faint if you try. There are big snakes and little snakes, fat snakes and thin snakes, slow snakes and very fast snakes, so there are all kinds of snakes in the film. I don't know how they shot some of the scenes since it seems like the actors just lay in the floor as hundreds of snakes were on and next to them, so I don't know were they tricks or were the actors so desperate they really did all these things with these creatures.

There are many over-the-top scenes, most notably the most infamous in which this guy ties a girl like in some s/m session, and lets snakes free on her naked body, and some of the snakes, of course, find the most valuable and sensitive body part of the girl, and crawl there and I'm sure female viewers (if there are any) will cringe in that scene, since even I did. The cruelties committed at snakes are unsettling to watch, as real snakes are mutilated and burned alive in the film, but that was the film makers' moral that time (and in some cases, even today, unfortunately), but at least the snake abusers get something back in the movie, so maybe the film is a statement again about humans' and nature's relationship and how humans exploit everything we get our hands into.

The final scene is again very memorable and makes me wonder how they attached the snakes on that standing fellow, or were they real snakes in the first place? This film has so much outrageous elements, scenes and ideas, this is a must for fans of Asian demented and twisted horror/sleaze cinema, and worth tracking down. There are many other similar films made in East, and it is just one example of what separates their cinema from Western cinema. Again this film proves how unique Eastern cinema is in many ways. 8/10

"The Killer Snakes" is surely one of my guilty pleasures.This incredibly sordid horror film mixes gore,perverse sex,torture and animal cruelty.Chen Zhihong lives a miserable existence in a rundown hovel next to a snake emporium(where the owner removes and sells the live animals' gall bladders as an aphrodisiac).His only friend is Xiujuan,a pretty and sympathetic girl who sells toys in the local outdoor market.One evening Zhihong receives a most unusual visitor who becomes his closest confidant.A mutilated reptile from the neighboring shop slithers in and allows the youth to nurse it back to health.Naming the snake Xiaobiao,Zhihong soon finds that he has gained the trust of several other reptiles as well.However,his troubles with humans continue unabated,as he is beaten,robbed and humiliated by a prostitute and her cohorts.Even his faith in Xiujuan is shattered when she stands him up one evening for a date(though,unbeknownst to Zhihong,it is for a legitimate reason).With the help of his snakes he decides to take a gruesome revenge on everybody,who humiliated him."The Killer Snakes" is an ugly little film with several unpleasant characters.The atmosphere is incredibly sleazy and there is plenty of nudity,bondage and perverse sex to keep fans of exploitation happy.9 out of 10.

The Killer Snakes is definitely a step above your typical mid-1970s animal horror film, combining the threat of venomous snakes with a grim tale of alienation in an urban environment. All the sexual frustration and sleaze that was implied in films like Willard and Stanley comes to the fore here.

The film focuses on a young man suffering from psycho-sexual scars stemming from witnessing his mother engaging in sadomasochistic activity as a child. He is constantly tormented by street thugs and prostitutes. Unfortunately, the man also has the ability to communicate psychically with snakes, which he ultimately uses to punish those who have offended him, particularly women.

Many viewers will find this film difficult to watch. It features extremely graphic, sexual violence against women, as well as actual scenes of snakes being mutilated. Nevertheless, if you like extreme horror, this is definitely a film for you.

Snakes seeking fame and fortune in the Asian film industry are advised to read their contracts carefully: it's not rare for an over-eager reptile to be duped into partaking in 'snake snuff', ending up mangled, mashed, burnt, chopped, mutilated, or in some cases, even batted to death by a monkey, all for the sake of art.

Those who do risk signing up without reading the fine print certainly have guts, as is graphically demonstrated by the cobras at the beginning of Killer Snakes, who have their skin split open and gall bladders yanked out before being cast aside to die. Fortunately for these cold-blooded critters, they narrowly escape death (well, in the film they do—for a while; in reality, they most likely carked it straight away) when they are found and cared for by Chen Zhihong (Kam Kwok-leung), a meek but messed-up young man who has an affinity with snakes (and just a few screws loose, thanks to a very disturbed childhood).

Whilst nursing his scaly pals back to health, Chen suffers daily physical abuse at the hands of local bullies; eventually, however, he is able to turn the tables on his tormentors when his newfound, fork-tongued friends decide to lend him a hand in exacting revenge (metaphorically speaking, of course; I know that snakes don't have hands!).

Time flies by as our luckless chump and his slithery chums set about settling the score (which includes abusing female bullies by abducting them, tying them up, and letting his snakes find a nice warm place to hide); meanwhile, pretty market girl Xiujuan (Maggie Li Lin-lin), the apple of Chen's eye, has fallen on hard times and is being groomed by Madam FangFang for prostitution. When Hu Baochun, a wealthy slime-ball, sets his sights on breaking in the new girl, Chen and his hissing homeboys (hey, I'm running out of things to call them) attempt to stop him before he can successfully sample Xiujuan's as-yet untouched delights.

Now available on Region 1 DVD in its uncut form, this sordid slice of Shaw Brothers snakesploitation is a top contender as 'Most Unsavoury Reptilan HK Horror Ever', even rivalling the excellent Calamity of Snakes for the title. Set in an inner-city slum, where Chen lives in a particularly squalid hovel, the film is unapologetically grubby, wallowing in its own filth and depravity and delighting in its sexual violence and animal cruelty. It's obviously not a film for animal lovers or the politically correct, but thicker-skinned fans of outrageous and excessive Asian oddities should definitely check out this film for its sheer craziness, which includes Chen's all-too-brief visit to a local whore, an attack by vicious Komodo dragons, mucho mid-air serpent slicing, some sleazy flashbacks to Chen's childhood that explain his predilection for bondage, and a nifty nihilistic ending that sees the snakes turning on their master.

Bizarre tale of a reclusive young man whose chronic inhibitions have been shaped by his tormented childhood, during which he witnessed his prostitute mother being subjected to degrading acts and mistreatment by clients. He grows up to become a sexually repressed loner, the ridicule of others, repetitively robbed and humiliated until he discovers an injured snake whom he cares for and then rears to fight his battles. Sadistic shocks reign supreme in this over-the-top Hong Kong thriller; there are two scenes in particular in which the sexually deviant content would challenge the censorship regulations to the limit, so it's surprising that "Killer Snakes" even manages an R rating.

In context, the cast all perform their roles well, and the lead character can to some degree elicit sympathy for his misguided crimes. Maze-like poverty-stricken alleyways, bustling, diverse markets and ram-shackled rat-hole dwellings look authentic, and the mood is consistently dark and sinister, striking an effective chord throughout.

But the sadism with which the characters are mercilessly dispensed might offend the average punter, even where it seems as though the victim has earned their punishment. The scene in which the sleazy playboy is taunted by the snakes in his plush apartment is a particular example where I was comfortable with the comeuppance meted out; contrast this with the scene in which the girl's sister (whose only crime was to discourage her sister from dating snake-boy) is tortured S&M style using the snakes (use your imagination) is a graphic example where shock value goes beyond proportionate justice (within the perverted context). Undoubtedly well made and engaging if just a little excessive at times.