Conjured up by a tribe of primitives, a giant snake returns to kill anyone in it's path. Big game hunter Jason Kincaid(Oliver Reed) is plagued by "viral telepathy"(he was bitten by the snake, whose potent venom he was immune, his brother wasn't so lucky)and seeks the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Tom Brazilian(Peter Fonda) experimenting with extra sensory perception, hoping for an antidote to cure his "link" to the snake. Kincaid can see through the snake's eyes and even feels the pain of it's victims. Kincaid's niece, Suzanne Cavadon(Kerrie Keane), attempts, futilely, to keep the snake from entering Stateside, and her efforts to kill it fails(..she turns up the temperature of the box containing it) but a former CIA agent, Warren Crowley(Al Waxman, in all his sweaty, lecherous glory) who is paid by a Snake cult leader to kidnap it(..a member of the cult frees it while attempting to tame it), fails at the job, barely escaping with his life while the fiend is set loose on civilization. Anyway, the snake is loose on the streets as the police comb the area looking for it while Tom hopes to find it through Kincaid, by using whatever device or tool he might have at his disposal in finding it's whereabouts before more and more innocents are stalked and destroyed. Kincaid decides he must end it's reign of terror once and for all, even if it means his life. Crowley, himself, must also find it or suffer the wrath of the scorned cult leader who demands for the snake to be in his possession or else.
While the attacks are ferocious, the snake is mostly shot off-screen, with director William Fruet opting to show the bodies of victims hurled around like a battered toy in the hands of a child. A lot of the film is shot in point-of-view, the screen tinted blue as we see through it's eyes as it pursues potential victims. The plot will inevitably be viewed as rather nonsensical, and rightfully so, the whole idea of a man being telepathically linked to a devil snake. The creature itself looks like a rubber snake, so perhaps it was best not to show him too much. Fonda looks and acts very disinterested; I imagine he has disowned this movie, and perhaps Oliver Reed had as well. Probably the most memorable suspense sequence occurs as Fonda and Keane search for the snake in a university greenhouse. Also, perhaps memorable is a scene involving a pretty naked girl showering as her friend is being torn to pieces by a snake in the room next to the bathroom, before it bursts through the glass door to get her. Pretty embarrassing movie for Fonda and Reed known for much better than this, a low point for two really impressive careers.
While the attacks are ferocious, the snake is mostly shot off-screen, with director William Fruet opting to show the bodies of victims hurled around like a battered toy in the hands of a child. A lot of the film is shot in point-of-view, the screen tinted blue as we see through it's eyes as it pursues potential victims. The plot will inevitably be viewed as rather nonsensical, and rightfully so, the whole idea of a man being telepathically linked to a devil snake. The creature itself looks like a rubber snake, so perhaps it was best not to show him too much. Fonda looks and acts very disinterested; I imagine he has disowned this movie, and perhaps Oliver Reed had as well. Probably the most memorable suspense sequence occurs as Fonda and Keane search for the snake in a university greenhouse. Also, perhaps memorable is a scene involving a pretty naked girl showering as her friend is being torn to pieces by a snake in the room next to the bathroom, before it bursts through the glass door to get her. Pretty embarrassing movie for Fonda and Reed known for much better than this, a low point for two really impressive careers.