As a Hammer film fan I'm used to seeing all the usual suspects, but this film makes a neat departure from your classic movie monsters and delves into a bit of reptilian horror. Considering that the feature creature was a snake woman, I began to question why the picture wasn't called 'The Snake Woman' or 'Cobra Woman', but following a quick IMDb search, I found those titles were already taken; the first one made in 1961 and the latter in 1944. I thought that might have been the case.
Well it takes a while for the actual snake woman to make her appearance in full regalia, and one has to admit it was a grotesque piece of business. The 'cobra' fangs on the neck of it's victims was also a neat touch, hinting at a possible vampire tease but going in a different direction altogether. I had to wonder why Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) didn't get the full monty blackened skin treatment and die right off the bat when Anna (Jacqueline Pearce) put the bite on him, but obviously his wife (Jennifer Daniel) made it to the rescue in time.
Meanwhile the business with the Malay creepy guy (Marne Maitland) didn't seem very well fleshed out to explain why he had such a dominant hold over Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman). They eventually came to blows, so except for the sake of the story, one would question why Franklyn didn't make his break with the guy a lot sooner. By the way, what was in that bubbly concoction in the underground dungeon - poison, snake venom, acid, what?
Overall though, an effective enough horror flick to entertain most fans. The Hammer sets always manage to entertain with their lavish detail, this one was absent some of the bright, garish color of the Frankenstein and Dracula flicks. The inclusion of Anna playing a sitar had to be a bonus, you don't get to see that much, short of a Ravi Shankar concert.
Well it takes a while for the actual snake woman to make her appearance in full regalia, and one has to admit it was a grotesque piece of business. The 'cobra' fangs on the neck of it's victims was also a neat touch, hinting at a possible vampire tease but going in a different direction altogether. I had to wonder why Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) didn't get the full monty blackened skin treatment and die right off the bat when Anna (Jacqueline Pearce) put the bite on him, but obviously his wife (Jennifer Daniel) made it to the rescue in time.
Meanwhile the business with the Malay creepy guy (Marne Maitland) didn't seem very well fleshed out to explain why he had such a dominant hold over Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman). They eventually came to blows, so except for the sake of the story, one would question why Franklyn didn't make his break with the guy a lot sooner. By the way, what was in that bubbly concoction in the underground dungeon - poison, snake venom, acid, what?
Overall though, an effective enough horror flick to entertain most fans. The Hammer sets always manage to entertain with their lavish detail, this one was absent some of the bright, garish color of the Frankenstein and Dracula flicks. The inclusion of Anna playing a sitar had to be a bonus, you don't get to see that much, short of a Ravi Shankar concert.