aka The Bite
Italy/Japan. 1988.
Crew
Director – Fred Goodwin [Federico Prosperi], Screenplay – Federico Prosperi & Susan Zelouf, Photography – Roberto D’Ettore Piazzoli, Music – Carlo Maria Cordio, Makeup Effects – Screaming Mad George, Production Design – William Jett. Production Company – Ovidio G. Assonitis/Viva Entertainment/Towa Production/Trihoop Investments B.V..
Cast
Jill Schoelen (Lisa Snipes), J. Eddie Peck (Clark Newman), Jamie Farr (Harry Morton), Bo Svenson (Sheriff), Marianne Muellerleile (Big Flo), Terrence Evans (Farmer Dave), Savina Gersak (Iris), Al Fann (Gas Station Attendant), Sandra Sexton (Dr Marder), Sydney Lassick (George), Shiri Appleby (Grace)
Plot
Clark Newman and his girlfriend Lisa Snipes are driving through Arizona when he decides to take a shortcut through the Yellow Sands nuclear testing grounds, despite warnings against doing so from the locals. As they drive, they encounter dozens of snakes across the road. One of these gets in the car and bites Clark’s hand. As they stop to sign into a motel, salesman Harry Morton steps forward to help and injects Clark with snakebite serum. As they set out the next morning, Harry realises he has given Clark the wrong serum and races after him, fearful of a lawsuit. As they travel, the snakebite beneath Clark’s bandage begins to mutate, growing a snake’s body and taking on a life of its own.
The Curse (1987) was a quick cheapie designed to jump aboard the mid-80s fad for H.P. Lovecraft films following Re-Animator (1985) and predicated on providing a mass of gooey makeup effects. It was a dreadful film where its sole distinction was in being the directorial debut of actor David Keith. The Curse was only released to video and I would be amazed if there was a single person in the world that gave it a good review. (Or the sequel either for that matter).
The surprise is why The Curse ended up spawning a sequel with Curse II: The Bite. In fact, not just a sequel but a franchise, where it was followed by Curse III Blood Sacrifice (1991), as well as Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice, which was actually a Charles Band produced film Catacombs (1988) that was picked up and released following the financial collapse of Empire Productions. Ovidio G. Assonitis, the Italian producer of a lot of cheap films, including Beyond the Door (1974) and the bizarre culty The Visitor (1979), retained the title and attempted to manufacture a franchise out of it. None of the three Curse films are connected beyond the title and featuring a bunch of gooey splatter effects.
Curse II: The Bite is marginally a better film than The Curse was. At least Federico Prospero, who hides behind the Anglicised name of Fred Goodwin, is a better director than the almost complete ineptitude that David Keith showed when he took the director’s chair on the first film. (Although it should be noted that neither director went onto have any kind of subsequent career – David Keith made only one other film, while Curse II: The Bite remains the one and only film that Federico Prosperi has ever directed).
Federico Prosperi delivers a lot of silly effects – a very faux voyeuristic scene where the snake creeps up on Jill Schoelen as she takes a shower and emerges in a towel. There is a lameness to the drama – like trying to drum up suspense and excitement from crosscutting to Jamie Farr back at the motel, or trying to create a cross-state chase via CB radio. Not to mention the flimsiness of the premise – Jamie Farr gives J. Eddie Peck the wrong snakebite serum after he is bitten by a snake from an atomic test site and the bite somehow mutates into a giant snake that takes over and possesses the whole of Peck’s arm. At this point, the film sort of turns into a bizarre melding of a 1980s Makeup Effects Vehicle and a possessed hand film a la The Hands of Orlac (1925) and Mad Love (1935).
Curse II: The Bite has largely been predicated around the makeup effects provided by Screaming Mad George, who became a cult figure of sorts around this period and contributed effects to various Elm Street films and even co-directed The Guyver (1991). The most entertaining parts are the last ten minutes of the film, which becomes Screaming Mad George’s show where his effects quite excel themselves. The snake emerges from J. Eddie Peck and grabs Terrence Evans by the throat with its tongue, slamming him into the wall. Jill Schoelen for no clear reason drives off in her underwear with Peck on the hood of the car where he proceeds to melt down – his eyeballs dropping out, followed by his tongue, which then proceeds to wiggle around on the windscreen, and a big glop of goo from his throat that gives birth to dozens of baby snakes. Jill Schoelen is then pursued down a pipe into a construction site, ending up in a pit of mud as the pursuing Peck vomits up large snakes that slither after her before his head splits open to a 180 degree angle to allow a giant snake to emerge.
One of the surprise pieces of casting is the presence of Jamie Farr, better known as the cross-dressing Corporal Klinger in tv’s M.A.S.H. (1972-83). Farr has done almost nothing since the demise of M.A.S.H.. Crappy films like this must surely be the washed-up wasteland that faded tv stars go when their star pales. To his credit, Farr gives a lively performance and is the most alive thing in the film. Bo Svenson, a veteran who has made his home in B-budget films, gives another decent performance as a bigoted, smalltown sheriff.
Trailer here