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OVERALL
BEASTS
BREASTS
Aka: The Bite (UK)
Director: Frederico Prosperi
Writers: Frederico Prosperi & Susan Zelou
Cast---
Jill Schoelen ... Lisa Snipes
J. Eddie Peck ... Clark Newman
Jamie Farr ... Harry Morton
Savina Gersak ... Iris
Marianne Muellerleile ... Trucker Big Flo
Bo Svenson ... The Sheriff
Runtime:USA:98 min
Writers: Frederico Prosperi & Susan Zelou
Cast---
Jill Schoelen ... Lisa Snipes
J. Eddie Peck ... Clark Newman
Jamie Farr ... Harry Morton
Savina Gersak ... Iris
Marianne Muellerleile ... Trucker Big Flo
Bo Svenson ... The Sheriff
Runtime:USA:98 min
CURSE II: THE BITE (1987)
The sequel to The Curse could not be more different. We go from freaky alien water mutating people
on a farm to snakes biting people and turning them into mutants in Texas. Okay, so its not that much
different, but it sure feels like a totally different movie. The reason being that this was never intended to
be a sequel to the modest flop that was the first film. However, the distributors decided to re-title the film,
making it a sequel, but it had zero connection to the first movie and even though that movie left a lot of
unanswered questions, I'm kind of grateful for the blank slate start. Written and directed by Europeans
who never went on to much after this, and featuring a cast of notable players, the sequel actually
manages to do something the first one didn't, thrill me.
The film begins with Lisa and Clark traveling cross country. Lisa is played by the lovely Jill Schoelen
from The Stepfather, Cutting Class with Brad Pitt, the excellent slasher Popcorn, and the surprisingly
excellent The Phantom of the Opera with Robert Englund. The girl's got some major genre credits, and
unfortunately this is one of her lesser ones. Anyway, the couple are driving across the desert when they
run over hundreds and hundreds of snakes on the road. It turns out the rattlers are running wild, and
while they change a tire one of the snakes slips into their car. They stop to fix their flat at a service
station and we meet a man who's dog was bitten by a snake and it turns out the bite has mutated his
dog. Unfortunately, the effect was probably lame looking so its kept in the dark, but you do get to see
the head of the dog snake. Anyway, the couple arrives at a motel in Texas and Clark is bit on the hand
by their stowaway. He is given an antidote by traveling salesman Harry Morton (played by M.A.S.H.
regular Jamie Farr), who just happens to be a snake expert.
But the antidote doesn't solve a thing because then the film would be over, and it's not. Lisa and Clark
take off again, but Clark starts getting sick and acting strange. He beats her up one night and she
threatens to leave him, but he masturbates her while she drives and all is forgiven. Meanwhile, Harry is
chasing the couple down. It turns out he gave Clark the wrong antidote and he could die, also Harry
doesn't want to get the pants sued off of him. The kids get pulled over by a sheriff (played by Bo
Svenson) and Clark is arrested because he won't show them his bandaged hand. He eventually shows it
to them and when it is revealed that bite on his hand has mutated his hand into a snake. He is taken to a
hospital by Lisa and manages to kill his doctor. He escapes with the help of a Swedish guy and leaves
the state. Too bad for him that the sheriff, who survived, is hot on his trail.
Made 3 years after Cronenberg's The Fly, this movie plays like a ripoff of that story with snakes
substituted for a fly. This is a very educational film, though. Did you know that snakes can scream when
they are being hit by a guitar? Did you also know that when you mutate into a snake you become quite
the jerk?
- Jose Prendes
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