Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Movie review - "Island of the Snake People" (1971)

Towards the end of his life Boris Karloff worked with some exciting new directors - Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Reeves and Jack Hill. He actually made more movies with Hill than the other two - four at the end of his life which were Mexican films with some Karloff footage shot in Los Angeles.

They are not very highly regarded movies, even by the most devoted Karloff fan, and really only for completists. There are some effective moments here however and it's not a bad story: a voodoo cult is running riot on a small island, under the thrall of a priest. Karloff plays a rich local landowner - do you reckon he had anything to do with it? He's got a niece who is a temperance campaigner, one of several interesting little tidbits.

There's also a few ceremonies involving a snake, one where a woman puts a snakes head down her throat; a dwarf, some necrophilia and chicken sacrificing, plus two heroic police investigators, one handsome the other a character actor, a snake dancer, and some half-decent atmosphere. It lacks logic and Karloff's absence for most of filming is irriatingly evident at times - this one boosts his presence by featuring his photo heavily during the credits but it's not enough.

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