Rattlers (1976)

Fangs for the Memories
I give "Rattlers" 3 stars, "The Snake People" 4 stars, and the extras 3 stars.

Rattlers is just another one of the many barely distinguishable movies about humans attacked by swarms of snakes/spiders/bees/ants/frogs/etc. which came out in huge numbers in the 1970s. It has all the usual characters: the local sheriff, the good scientist, the love interest, the small-town victims, etc. Not bad as a time-waster, but this one doesn't even have the usual big-name B actor like William Shatner or Michael Caine to laugh at.

"The Snake People", which isn't even given double billing on the front cover, is not only a longer film, but far superior. It is one of several cheap Mexican films Boris Karloff made towards the end of his life (usually small, unimportant scenes filmed in L.A. sliced into the rest of the movie, filmed in Mexico). Most of these films were quite exploitative, making me wonder if Karloff knew the true contents of the rest of these films. However, this one is very tame...

Hisssssssssssssss ...
RATTLERS (1976) is a forgotten little fright film released by the ubiquitous Harry Novak that I recall playing the Drive-Ins during my youth. It failed to get an official video release, and is now winging its way to us via the good folks at Something Weird DVD! One should be warned that just because it's digital, it doesn't mean that RATTLERS is a feast for the senses: indeed, the print is brown, worn-out and ugly to the eye. In actuality, it adds to the grittiness of its barren desert setting.

We know the film has its heart in the right place when two tow-headed little boys wander from their family RV to go snooping around the Mojave Desert and fall into a bed of rattlesnakes. Ah! How trash films of this era rose to the occasion ... starting a film with the deaths of two small children whose biggest sin was taking a sip from their white trash daddy's beer! Something's not right as other citizens of the sand-swept area begin to fall prey to the slithery ones .... A farm boy goes in...

Snake Eyes...
Oh no! The army's been dumping more horrid chemicals in the desert! This time it's effected the natural order by turning harmless rattlesnakes into hyper-aggressive killers! No one is safe from the venomous fangs of these slithery fiends! They can even bite through jeep tires! Can a herpitologist (Sam Chew) find a way to deal w/ these vipers of doom?? RATTLERS is an ok movie, w/ some mildly exciting scenes and minimal carnage. Meanwhile, SNAKE PEOPLE is a wild affair w/ Boris Karloff as a voodoo guy and exotic dancing legend Tongalele as the red hot voodoo priestess! Yessiree!! Watch also for the cannibal women!...

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