everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The ultimate in cheesy monster movies, this low-budget oddity is blessed with a better-than-average cast for the genre, but otherwise it falls mostly sub-par. It's a slow-moving and often boring mess, with long passes of dialogue about nothing in particular, an unintelligent script which often repeats the same words and passes, and direction which shows absolutely no flair for visual art. Its also one of those movies which ran out of money during production, meaning that at the end we get lots of padded footage from earlier in the movie which doesn't make much sense being inserted where it is. The simple storyline involves a giant snake being transported to America where it escapes (of course – the film wouldn't exist if it didn't) and wreaks havoc on a university campus.The best and most hilarious part of the movie sees the snake invade a sorority house, where it stalks the screaming naked girls like an ultra-cheesy Michael Myers impersonation. Here's a film which utilises a dated 'snake cam' (often used since in monster movies and such), where we see the bloody deaths through the snake's tinted blue vision. The sappy Tangerine Dream theme song only adds to the weirdness of the proceedings. For the blood and guts fan, the film reaches about an average level of grue, with some bloody snake bites and attacks and at least one bit of fun, rubbery special effects which shows a victim swelling and disintegrating as a result of a snake bite! The snake itself is a cheesy, papier-mâché type model, but it serves its purpose well and at least looks fairly imaginative.Heading the cast is Peter Fonda delivering a typically bland, laid back turn as an investigating doctor. However, his character hangs around in the sidelines and doesn't actually achieve much as a hero. The heroine is also extremely bland, so its left to our favourite ham Oliver Reed to deliver the performance goods. From trancing out in a static box to slashing at the venomous serpent with a knife come the abrupt (but powerhouse) climax, he's in control and he makes the movie. The only other cast member of note is Al Waxman, typecast as a slimy villain, who hams with gusto. Aside from a few fun performances, a handful of decent action bits, and some slimy special effects, however, SPASMS is an unusually bland movie and for the most part a disappointment.

Conjured up by a tribe of primitives, a giant snake returns to kill anyone in it's path. Big game hunter Jason Kincaid(Oliver Reed) is plagued by "viral telepathy"(he was bitten by the snake, whose potent venom he was immune, his brother wasn't so lucky)and seeks the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Tom Brazilian(Peter Fonda) experimenting with extra sensory perception, hoping for an antidote to cure his "link" to the snake. Kincaid can see through the snake's eyes and even feels the pain of it's victims. Kincaid's niece, Suzanne Cavadon(Kerrie Keane), attempts, futilely, to keep the snake from entering Stateside, and her efforts to kill it fails(..she turns up the temperature of the box containing it) but a former CIA agent, Warren Crowley(Al Waxman, in all his sweaty, lecherous glory) who is paid by a Snake cult leader to kidnap it(..a member of the cult frees it while attempting to tame it), fails at the job, barely escaping with his life while the fiend is set loose on civilization. Anyway, the snake is loose on the streets as the police comb the area looking for it while Tom hopes to find it through Kincaid, by using whatever device or tool he might have at his disposal in finding it's whereabouts before more and more innocents are stalked and destroyed. Kincaid decides he must end it's reign of terror once and for all, even if it means his life. Crowley, himself, must also find it or suffer the wrath of the scorned cult leader who demands for the snake to be in his possession or else.While the attacks are ferocious, the snake is mostly shot off-screen, with director William Fruet opting to show the bodies of victims hurled around like a battered toy in the hands of a child. A lot of the film is shot in point-of-view, the screen tinted blue as we see through it's eyes as it pursues potential victims. The plot will inevitably be viewed as rather nonsensical, and rightfully so, the whole idea of a man being telepathically linked to a devil snake. The creature itself looks like a rubber snake, so perhaps it was best not to show him too much. Fonda looks and acts very disinterested; I imagine he has disowned this movie, and perhaps Oliver Reed had as well. Probably the most memorable suspense sequence occurs as Fonda and Keane search for the snake in a university greenhouse. Also, perhaps memorable is a scene involving a pretty naked girl showering as her friend is being torn to pieces by a snake in the room next to the bathroom, before it bursts through the glass door to get her. Pretty embarrassing movie for Fonda and Reed known for much better than this, a low point for two really impressive careers.

Wanted to drop a quick note here in defense of Brent Monahan, a high school buddy and friend of my husband's. Brent has stated that the movie's script was altered at least 75% from the original story that he had penned--a common practice in Film Land. Even "An American Haunting" suffered a deviation of 30% from his original story. He will be having a new film produced from one of his works, but only on the stipulation that his own script is used. So lets hope that we will finally get the chance to see his entire novel as it was written.In my experience, unless the original author gets to write the script, stories are often massacred beyond recognition.

WARNING SPOILERS CONTAINED HEREIN. An Aboriginal snake-god is brought to the USA so that great white hunter JasonKincaid (Oliver Reed) can destroy it to stop having psychicnightmares from snakey-poo. He hires ESP psychiatrist, Dr.Brasilian (Peter Fonda) to help him. Apparently, years earlier whenKincaid was bitten by the snake, the snake venom transmitted"viral telepathy" to him. Meanwhile, a Satan-worshiping snake cultwants the monster to be their master, and so, they try to steal it. Ofcourse, the creature gets loose and kills everyone in its path,causing their arms and faces to bubble and pulsate. For somereason, the snake is sometimes visible, sometimes invisible.There's some major overacting by Oliver Reed, including spazzingout and making unintentionally funny faces. (Perhaps, this iswhere the name for the title comes from). Peter Fonda is cool asbeans in his sunglasses and sport's jacket- plus he says the word"fart" for no reason. This is one of the greatest unintentionalcomedies ever made. You get some jackassed dialogue, ridiculous killing scenes, plus some T & A thrown in to make youhappy. As you can see, I really liked this movie. This wonderfullaugh-fest is the perfect remedy for the blues. I recommend youget a copy NOW!