Hot Snake

Through the years, I had seen a variety of western movies: A Fistful of Dollars 1964, For A Fistful of Dollars More 1964, The Good The Bad and The Ugly 1966, Todo Por Nada 1968, El Topo 1970, Todo El Horizonte Pará Morir 1971, El Hombre Desnudo 1976, El Extraño Hijo del Sheriff 1986, La Leyenda del Manco 1987, Tombstone 1993, The Quick and The Dead 1995, La Carreta de La Muerte 1996, and El Valle de Los Gigantes 2003.

(All of them westerns, all of them with their unique stories, none copying one or the other.)

At the same time, I had been a fan of director Fernando Durán Rojas' work, and after a little research on his filmography (Here in IMDb) this certain movie caught my attention (Vibora Caliente); and after the research I end up liking it, just by reading the synopsis. (But unfortunately, four years ago, I didn't magae to find it; until yesterday, and today I had watched it)

Vibora Caliente is a unique western, that doesn't have no elements, no characters neither it's story based from previous movies already mentioned; Vibora Caliente speak for itself. I do recommend.

(And I won't spoil it, you have to watch it, you can find it HD on Blue-ray, like I did)

Hot Snake does not pull any punches, opening with the massacre of a group of army officers who were transporting the body of their fellow soldier along with his grieving widow. The bandit, not satisfied with the cash he manages to obtain, also attempts to rape the widow and when she puts up a fight, shoots her dead and well gets to work finishing what he started - all this before the opening credits!

Much more violent than even the Spaghetti Westerns made around the time, this Mexican Western mixes elements of the supernatural in the form of a witch and her predictions of doom regarding the fate of the bounty hunter tasked with delivering the necrophiliac bandit dead or alive. These elements set Hot Snake apart from other Westerns the barren landscape evoking a spooky sense of eeriness.

It's not all doom and gloom though thanks in large part to the gorgeous Christa Linder as Eva, our lead bounty hunter's squeeze, who provides the nudity for this picture and whilst the middle of the movie does suffer from some pacing issues, the beautiful scenery, music and aforementioned nudity make up for any such shortcomings in an otherwise overlooked Western gem.