Jaws of Satan (1981)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Fritz Weaver stars in this supernatural thriller as Father Tom Farrow, whose parish is in a rural Alabama town that is about to have a dog track open up soon, but unfortunately a deadly king cobra has escaped from a train where three mysterious deaths occurred, and more in town, bringing in the interest of a doctor(played by Gretchen Corbett) and a herpetologist(played by Jon Korkes) who must join forces with the priest in order to defeat this devilish threat, as this is no ordinary snake, but is in fact Satan... Good cast cannot save this flatly directed film that is devoid of suspense, though is almost endearingly campy. A young Christina Applegate co-stars. Once obscure film is now available on a double-feature Blu-ray from Scream Factory, and has a fine HD transfer at least, though the on-screen title is "King Cobra", as is the theatrical trailer. "Jaws Of Satan" is a much better title!

This flick here still unavailable on DVD as I am writing this was made in the heydays of horror. But what this film does is showing us how not to make a horror. It's hard to believe with a cast like this that this is really a turkey. A snake is supposed to be Satan and terrorises a town. Looks promising but it's so low on everything and really has cheesy effects that I would classify it under a big failure. Bob Claver, the director in fact never made another movie, he was more into series. But the direction I could dig but the storyline and effects were laughable. In the beginning when the snake attacks on a train you could easily spot the glass partition between the snake and the victim, and it gets funnier when you see the snake hitting the glass. Further on you only see the bitemarks of the snake on swollen faces. The acting was okay, face it, big names from the genre were in it, Fritz Weaver and Gretchen Corbett of many famous horror flicks. But why most people are hunting the US VHS down is for the performance of the 10 year old Christina Applegate, here in her first role ever. And you will recognize her immediately due her eyes.Jaws Of Satan is only worth watching for Christina fans or for the lovers of bad horror flicks. maybe some will want to see Gretchen walking around in her nudies but it's clean edited with nothing to see. It doesn't deliver scariness or blood, it's a lot of blah blah and you really must see the cheesy ending.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

A giant king cobra escapes from a freight train, to stage a biblical war against a town priest (Weaver) whose faith is waning. Numerous deaths occur leading Father Farrow to the conclusion that it is Satan himself, incarnate as the biblical serpent of evil, sent from hell to bring about damnation to human kind. Or, as herpetologist Jon Korkes prefers, "it's just a big snake". Contaminating the plot, is a much anticipated opening of a local dog track that a local businessman – supported by the morally corrupt mayor of course – is determined to see through at any cost. End result, while the punters might have missed an opportunity to flush their hard earned, they are, on the other hand, spared a holy war of biblical proportions thanks to the renewed faith Weaver finds, just in time to save his soul.Technically well constructed, with performances of conviction, and generally well paced, there's nothing ostensibly wrong with this mild shocker – even the make-up effects are generally better than most films of the snake ilk. The church organ inspired score can be irritating at times, and some of the supporting cast rank amateurs, but generally speaking, it's not unlikeable for the first 85 minutes.Disappointingly however, the film peters to the climax and instead of some "Exorcist" or "Omen" style epic fire and brimstone, we're treated to an alter ritual in the catacombs, where "Satan" has abducted the good Dr. Sheridan (Gretchen Corbett) and is holding her captive in wait for the man of the cloth. Add in a couple of conversions to the deal, and what we've got here, is surely a miracle.That's Christina Applegate as the token child victim, while veteran actor/producer Norman Lloyd looks as confused as the audience, trying to explain how Fr Farrow's bloodline is the cause of Satan's return, every three generations (or something like that). So, while not without some justifiable criticisms, this isn't that bad and certainly not the stinker that kept it in the tin for three years, before it was finally released in 1982. If the distributors were hoping for maturity in that time, alas, it didn't quite happen, but still worth a look.

The best thing about "Jaws of Satan" aka "King Cobra" are the snakes. This bottom of the barrel horror movie grafts together the plot from "Jaws" and "The Exorcist." Satan slithers into a rural Alabama town where a race dog track is going to open and starts killing the residents. Seems that the hooded cobra has eyes for Fritz Weaver's doubting Catholic priest. Gretchen Corbett plays a m.d. who wants to get to the bottom of the mystery. Veteran character actor Norman Lloyd has a brief role as an older priest. This movie flopped big-time, and like somebody else said here, the director Bob Claver made this his only theatrical film. Not bad enough to be funny, just bad enough to be bad. When I was a TV news reporter working in Columbus, Mississippi, I got to interview Weaver and a couple of the crew while they were making this dogie across the line in Eutaw, Alabama. As a matter of fact, Eutaw had had a dog racing track. Most of the film was shot on location, too, and that antebellum house is the real deal. What I most remember about reporting on this movie was the snakes. They used real snakes and they didn't put Plexiglas between the actors and the snakes, because the snake wrangler somehow convinced them not to worry. Anyway, a real stinker. Again, like somebody else said, the rattlesnake in the bathtub was a letdown scene. All the shots of the snakes still look great, especially the king cobra's close-up. Talk about a snake-bit movie.