Isle of the Snake People

1971
3.3| 1h30m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 March 1971 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

The inhabitants of a small, remote island have been practicing voodoo rites and worshipping an evil priest named Damballah for years, but the local law officials generally turn a blind eye to this death cult's bizarre activities. Captain Labesch arrives from the mainland, determined to crack down on the island's lawlessness and clean up the ineffectual, hard-drinking police force. He appeals for assistance from wealthy plantation tycoon Carl Van Molder, who owns nearly half of the island and wields a great deal of influence over the population. Van Molder has made the study of parapsychology his life's work and believes in the secret powers of the mind. He warns Labesch not to interfere with this forgotten island's ancient ways. Also visiting is Van Molder's niece, Annabella, a temperance crusader who wants her uncle to help fund the International Anti-Saloon League. She falls in love with handsome police lieutenant Andrew Wilhelm

Genre

Horror, Mystery

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Director

Jack Hill, Juan Ibáñez

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures

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Isle of the Snake People Audience Reviews

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
jacobjohntaylor1 This movie has great story line. It also great acting. It is better then The Exorcist. It has great special effects. It is very scary. If it does not scary you no movie will. I cant not believe that people do not like it. 3 is underrating this movie. What is your problem people. This is one of the best horror movies ever.
Leofwine_draca SNAKE PEOPLE is one of the infamous 'Mexican quartet' of films that Boris Karloff shot on the cheap shortly before his death in 1969. This one was filmed in 1968 but didn't actually get released until 1971, making it his penultimate screen appearance. I've seen three of the four of these films now and they're all similar in that they're extremely low budget horrors, made with a little imagination and lots of choppy editing that sometimes makes it feel like you're watching two films joined together, like those Godfrey Ho ninja flicks of the 1980s. SNAKE PEOPLE is one of the most disappointing of the four, because it has a lot of scope and a lot of potential. As usual, directorial chores are shared between exploitation king Jack Hill and Juan Ibanez. Individually, scenes are well shot, atmospheric, and contain a great visual style, but this is a film that's less than the sum of its parts. The editing is poor beyond belief, the script is flat and lifeless and too many ideas have been crammed in here with none of them coming to full fruition.The movie kicks off on a surreal high as a bespectacled dwarf, nicknamed Baron Samedi, sets about digging up the body of a recently deceased woman. There's a kind of madness hanging in the background, a sense of voodoo lurking unseen nearby and this is the film's best asset: a creepy atmosphere throughout. After this we're thrown into a plot involving a bullish police 'capitan' attempting to teach the pesky natives a thing or two, while the island's soldiers are dispatched with machetes and garrotes and Boris Karloff wanders around in his study, talking about telekinesis. Occasionally we go back to the evil dwarf and meet some zombies who are a cross between the willing slaves of 1940s zombie flicks and the flesh eaters of Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The film ends with a fully fledged voodoo ceremony but the climax is mishandled, just like the rest of the flick.The cast isn't really worth mentioning, other than Karloff who puts in his usual good performance – this actor never shows anything less than complete integrity. Too much time is spent with ageing real-life dancer Tongolele, who adds nothing to the plot other than a poor makeup job, and then there's the padding: endless scenes of dancing, of native mumbo-jumbo, sexist comments, repetition in the extreme, and then a ten minute dream sequence that has nothing to do with the rest of the movie! This bit involves attractive starlet Julissa finding herself trapped in a cave with her ghostly doppelganger. Like the rest of the film, it looks cool although makes little sense. Add into the mix some poor special effects, hints at necrophilia and lesbianism, and you have a could-have-been movie that's an ultimate disappointment. I rated this on par with DANCE OF DEATH, with ALIEN TERROR being the best of the four so far.
Rainey Dawn This film is also known by it's shorter name "Snake People". This is not what you would call a good film... but it's not completely horrible - it's so-so.We have Boris Karloff as Carl van Molder / Damballah a man that owns over half of the island and studies parapsychology. He is a firm believer in leaving the island natives to their ways - but there is a deeper reason for this.We have voodoo cultist killing people, a beautiful voodoo priestess and zombies. If this sounds appealing to you and you like older low-budget horror movies then you might like this film. This is not one of those "must see for horror fans" films but rather for those that like some of the older trash horror films.This is a good film to have for Boris Karloff fans - it's one of his last films.4/10
Uriah43 When "Captain Labesch" (Rafael Bertrand) arrives on a remote island under French colonial rule he is determined to put an end to the barbaric practices involved in voodoo rituals. With him is a naive young woman named "Anabella Vandenberg" (Julissa) who wants to rid the world of alcohol. To aid her in this mission she has come to the island to enlist the help of her rich uncle "Carl van Molder" (Boris Karloff) who owns a large plantation further inland. But what neither Captain Labesch nor Anabella realize is just how powerful the people who practice voodoo really are and that they are quite willing to use whatever means are at their disposal to continue their blood-thirsty rites. Anyway, rather than detailing the entire story and possibly spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this turned out to be a bit better than I expected. Admittedly, the action was a bit bland but the overall story was decent enough and the dancing of Yolanda Montes (as the voodoo priestess "Kalea") certainly didn't hurt the film in any way. Now, that is not to say that this movie is great by any means. But I didn't think it was that bad either. That said, I give it an average rating.