The Snake God (1970)

Studio: Mondo Macabro

Theatrical Release: November 28th, 1970

DVD Release: December 10th, 2013

Rating: UnRated

Directed by Piero Vivarelli

Review by Craig Sorensen

Ostensibly about a woman who falls in love with a snake, The Snake God is really about a woman’s love of black cock.  Now, that isn’t all that surprising in an exploitation film, snakes have been dick surrogates since the bible and ‘once you go black you never go back’ is a well known cliché.  What is surprising is that the film doesn’t condemn it’s characters for their sexual kinks.

Paola (Nadia Cassini of When Men Carried Clubs and Women Played Ding-Dong) arrives at her rich, older husband Bernard’s (Sergio Tramonti of Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion) home on a small island in the Caribbean.  While out for a leisurely boat ride around the islands, she spies a couple having sex on the beach.  Later, Paola bonds with half of the couple, Stella (Beryl Cunningham of The Weekend Murders), who warns her of the snake god Djamballa.  Djamballa, I guess, lives on a small island called Black Rock (subtle).  Of course, Paola just has to see this thing, so she sets off.  While there she sees a large snake and is mesmerized.  Now it seems that the snake god (who takes the form of a shirtless black man) has set his sights on Paola.  Is Paola fated to become the snake god’s bride?

The thing that sets The Snake God apart from other, trashier interracial sex films is the fairly non-judgmental way it treats it’s characters.  There is some supernatural tension in the first half of the film, building up Djamballa as something vaguely evil, but that’s dropped pretty quickly.  Mostly the film is about Paola’s inner turmoil over her new desires.  The film eventually comes down to a choice, either Paola can stay with her safe choice (an old visiting boyfriend) or she can take a chance and follow Djamballa.  And the film keeps things ambiguous right up to the end.  Did Paola make the right choice?  We’ll never know.  It is nice to not have the film moralizing for us.  It does get pretty old seeing characters end up physically or mentally destroyed because they didn’t  adhere to age old western/religious conservative standards of living.  Unfortunately that’s standard fare for most exploitation films.  If someone enjoys sex or drugs (or whatever happens to be different) they must be punished for that enjoyment.  God doesn’t like that kind of stuff so neither should they.

The Snake God looks pretty damned good on Mondo Macabro’s new DVD.  Evidently this is the same transfer that was used for it’s Italian DVD release quite a few years ago.  It’s been spruced up a bit though (seems to have better compression).  Also, that old Italian DVD is long out of print.  Anyway, the film is presented in it’s original aspect ratio and the warm, tropical color reproduction is very good.  As for special features you get the original Italian trailer, the expected Mondo Macabro promo reel, ‘extensive production notes’ and a 15 minute interview with director Piero Vivarelli.  He talks about his humble beginnings (why isn’t there a good DVD of Satanik?), working with Lucio Fulci and being a communist in Cuba and meeting Che Guevara.  It’s an interesting interview and helps give the film a little context.

 [Rating: 4 Stars]