La muerte viviente

In ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE, Boris Karloff plays mysterious plantation owner, Carl Van Molder, who just might be hiding a secret identity. Voodoo cultists cause much mischief, gaining the attention of the new police chief, who vows to pull the plug on their antics once and for all. They don't take kindly to this idea, and terror unfolds.

Considering that Karloff was 80 years old and in ill health during this, he does an admirable job. The movie itself is a ridiculous shambles, but has a certain weird charm.

We're treated to a hoodoo hoedown, zombies, cannibal women feasting upon unwary cops, and the beautiful Tongolele (aka: Yolanda Montes) performing her snake dance. My goodness! Her undulations are enough to convert anyone to the voodoo arts! An exotic dancer in her heyday, and regardless of her age in this film, she casts a powerful spell!

Ahem, so, prepare for some schlock-tastic fun...

"La Muerte Viviente" aka. "Isle Of The Living Dead" aka. "Snake People" of 1971, is an extremely trashy and unintentionally hilarious movie, and one of the last movies of the great horror icon Boris Karloff. I have utmost respect for director Jack Hill for movies like his great blaxploitation classic "Coffy" starring Pam Grier. "Snake People", directed by Hill and Juan Ibanez, however, is one of these movies that are so bad they're actually pretty good. I'm a big fan of trashy B-horror flicks, but the only two reasons why I enjoyed "Snake People" were Boris Karloff, who plays a rather small role in this, and the movie's unintentional fun value.

The tropical island "Korbai" is reigned by a bizarre voodoo cult. The cult's unholy priests, amongst them a creepy midget and a scary snake dancer, sacrifice beautiful local girls to their occult deity "Damballah". The girls, who volunteer as sacrifices in order to achieve eternal life, are then resurrected from the dead as mindless zombies. Determined to put an end, to these rituals, that are ignored by the local police, Captain Pierre Labesch comes to the island. He asks the islands richest landowner, Carl Van Molder (Boris Karloff) for help. In the meanwhile, Van Molder's niece, who came to the island to fight alcoholism, befriends a local police lieutenant.

As a horror movie, "Snake People " fails entirely. As an unintentional comedy, however, it is hilarious. The dialogue is extremely poor (and therefore extremely hilarious) and apart from Karloff, the acting is really bad too. The locations are amateurish, the plot has huge holes and many logical errors. While Captain Labesch, for example, is obviously French, and came to the island sent by 'the government', other law enforcement officers of this government have English names. I laughed a lot when I saw this movie the first time, and I will definitely watch it again. Don't expect any suspense, but watch this as the unintentional comedy it is and entertainment will be guaranteed. 3/10

This is one of Boris Karloff's last films. It's a confusing train wreck featuring Karloff as Damballah / Carl van Molder, a sexy-as-hell snake dancer named Tongalele, a maniacal grinning dwarf, zombies, and lots of big snakes of course. The basic premise of the movie is that the island has been taken over by zombies and followers of a voodoo cult who worship their leader, Damballah. The local police force are more interested in finding the bottom end of a rum bottle than they are in stopping the activities of the voodoo cult. A superior officer of the police arrives on the island to clean things up, and he tries to enlist the help of a large plantation owner, Carl van Molder. Van Molder is uninterested in helping the police, telling them to leave things as they are, that they don't know what they're messing with.

It's campy but fun, I've seen a lot worse that's for sure.

Just before he died Boris Karloff shot back to back footage for four poverty row horror flicks. Additional scenes were later shot in Mexico - with mostly different actors! - to bring each of them up to feature length.

This is the first and most coherent of this unfortunate quartet of pictures. It's also the dullest. Boris is a plantation owner on an island threatened by a curious voodoo cult that throws in cannibalism and snake worship with the usual business plan of raising of the dead to work in the fields.

The story is bereft of any new ideas and the phallic imagery is rather puerile. Still, we do get some lively snake dancing and the matching of the two sets of footage is not that bad, although Karloff's foreman appears in one scene with a beard and the next scene without!

If only the great man had stopped here!

In one of the four Mexican-American horror films he made before his death, Boris Karloff remains typically fun to watch. He plays Carl van Molder, an evil plantation owner out to create an army of zombies. Opposing him is righteous police captain Pierre Labesch (Rafael Bertrand), who arrives from the mainland to deal with the lawlessness on van Molders' island. Also newly arrived is van Molders' niece Anabella Vandenberg (the lovely Julissa), who preaches temperance. Van Molder appeals to alcoholic Lieutenant Wilhelm (Carlos East) for help with his problem.

Admittedly, the low, low budget "Snake People", a.k.a. "Island of the Snake People", a.k.a. "Cult of the Dead", is not exactly high art, or great cinema. But there's a place in the world for schlock like this, too. Juan Ibanez is the credited director, with cult icon Jack Hill handling the Hollywood-lensed scenes, and they strive hard for weirdness and atmosphere. The script is full of mumbo jumbo involving the living dead, voodoo legends, and LSD, but it's certainly amusing. And there's enough reptile action for the film to earn the use of the word "snake" in two of its titles, not to mention some effective sensuality and erotic dances.

The film goes as far as it can on the strength of the always compelling Karloff, supporting actor Quintin Bulnes (as the shady Klinsor), who has a great character face, the enticing Tongolele as the striking villainess Kalea, and another fine character player, Santanon, as the demonic dwarf. Bertrand is fine as the protagonist of the piece, receiving decent support from East.

There's enough bare skin and moody ambiance here to make this reasonably entertaining, especially on the level of a classic "late show" type of movie. Don't go into it expecting a lot of sense and logic, but one *can* expect a moderate level of fun if they're into this sort of thing.

Five out of 10.