Calamity of Snakes Review from Unearthed Films!

Unearthed Films are on a roll with releasing and preserving such Cat III Asian classics last year as Dr. Lamb (see review here) and The Untold Story. Now 2023, Unearthed brings a new release to their Unearthed Classics line with the forgotten Taiwanese wild one, Calamity of Snakes which is sure to trigger the masses of viewers not privy to extreme subversive Asian cinema. Let the virtue signalling begin.

The owner of a scheduled development, Fu Ren, wants to cut corners to achieve construction of an extravagant apartment complex within an eight-month period. However, during excavation a pit of snakes is discovered. To further save delays, Fu Ren decides to mass cull the snakes via an excavator smashing the snakes to death. Just prior to this, his daughter, Shumei, shows up on site to warn of a nightmare her mother had claiming she saw him covered in snakes. Fu Ren calling nonsense on such a dream hops in an excavator himself to seal the deal. The workers chip in with shovels and spades to bash and slash the snakes to pieces, thus commencing the thousands of snakes to follow being slaughtered for the purposes of this film.

Fast forward and the apartment construction is completed. The grand opening is approaching, but it is brought to Fu Ren’s attention by Secretary Ma that workers have been attacked and murdered by vengeful snakes! “We must open as scheduled.” states Fu Ren, “Shit, such a silly thing! The death of a worker means nothing!” he continues coldly. So, the opening goes on as planned, with profundity of guests appearing for the occasion. As expected, snakes run amok and start attacking everyone in the town.

The vindictive slithering serpentines are led by a massive python, so in an attempt to thwart the snake’s retribution, they enlist a snake Master to defeat the python leader of the snakes. This results in some wild snake-fu action sequences with the Master and the giant python, which is the most entertaining sequence in the film.

Calamity of Snakes is absolutely batshit crazy. There are sequences of goofy foolish editing akin to Benny Hill, as well as politically incorrect fat shaming, where an overweight woman is shown stuffing her face intercut with footage of hogs eating from a trough. So, the tone of the film moves fluidly from horror to comedy, to action, and predominantly exploitation.

In one absolutely insane and vicious prolonged Mondo-esque sequence two mongoose are let into a room of snakes where they attack the snakes, and the snakes attempt to defend themselves. These mongooses are savages, biting the faces off snakes in unfiltered troublesome exploitation.

Director Chi Chang (credited as William Chang Kee) is determined to unabashedly slaughter as many snakes as possible in the film, in up-close tragedy. There is a sequence of a town market (which I assume was shot at a real market), where a snake salesman literally skins a snake alive, remove the still beating heart in order to procure glasses of snake blood and gallbladder, which is supposed to promote virility. Several actors partake in this. Additionally, at every chance a snake is crushed or slashed to bits.

Mind you, the Taiwanese town in which this film was shot, the people ate many of the tortured and slaughtered snakes, but all were still dispatched of in the cruellest ways possible, which is quite uneasy to watch. All for a movie…

Calamity of Snakes is a portrayal of brutal exploitation cinema at the expense of the lives of thousands of serpentines. A film such as this is a testament of the cinematic times of Asian cinema in the 1980s. A film like this will never be made again, and Unearthed Films have unlocked a definitive 2K version, preserving a place and time in cinematic history.

Despite the films gratuitous use of mass snake devastation, the film is super entertaining and fun. Which is a weird sentence in and of itself because it is still uncomfortable. How can a film slaughtering real-life snakes be entertaining? Well Calamity of Snakes manages to achieve this through sheer outrageousness, and shock, and the desire for the viewer to see what further wild shit is in store for them.

Calamity of Snakes is a must own piece of cinematic history if you’re a fan of CAT III and Asian exploitation cinema. Additionally, there will be a cruelty free version of the film if you’re interested in some wild snake-fu that doesn’t leave a bad taste in your mouth.

Calamity of Snakes will be unearthed on blu-ray on April 11, 2023 (pre-order Calamity of Snakes here).