Jaws of Satan (1981)

AKA: King Kobra

Director: Bob Claver

Writers: James Callaway, Gerry Holland

Composer: Roger Kellaway

Starring: Fritz Weaver, Gretchen Corbett, Jon Korkes, Norman Lloyd, Diana Douglas, Bob Hannah, Nancy Priddy, Christina Applegate, John McCurry

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Something you wouldn't dare to imagine is alive!

Plot: A preacher whose ancestors were cursed by Druids battles Satan, who has taken the form of a huge snake.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This isn't all that bad.  It's smacks of being a JAWS (1975) clone but with snakes and, uh, Satan.  That was different.  The acting runs the gamut of bad to good to better than what this film deserves but overall it's just an OK horror picture that doesn't get boring or overstay its welcome.  That's the good thing about this is that I was surprised it didn't take a trip to Dullsville and stay the night.  It comes close, though.  They got creative when it came to when to use real snakes and when to bring in the phony ones.  Using Desoto Caverns in Childersburg, Alabama for the big finale was great.  I just visited there a year ago.  It's OK.  There are far better caves in the region.  The problem with Desoto Caverns is all you have access to is the one large room.  The owners are super Christian and it shows in their tour.  If you've never been to a cave then you'll dig it but you won't if you've gone to some good ones.  I found it a moderate wast of $25.  But I'm not here to talk about some tarted up whore of a cave.  There's a wasted opportunity when one character steps into a tub where there's a large deadly snake in the back.  The camera is on the front of the tub showing the woman's lower legs and feet and then she slowly steps back to eventually reveal that the snake disappeared and it's slithering in another room.  There was very little suspense.  A better way to handle that would be to cut away just before we would see the snake, have her slip a little and scream as she falls a bit.  Then show us the snake isn't there.  And there's the tease and promise of nudity but there isn't any.  The naughty bits are cleverly hidden by furniture and shit.  But I didn't make this picture, obviously; Bob Claver did.   This the only feature film he worked on.  He directed and produced  gobs and gobs of TV shows for almost 30 years.  So often it's painfully obvious when a predominately TV director makes a movie but not so much here and that's a good thing.  The Shout TV anamorphic widescreen print looks marvelous.