Leofwine_draca 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.

lost-in-limbo What could have been promising in a silly, entertaining manner ends up being rather mediocre rushed and seriously confined. "Spasms" is a daft, cheaply made creature feature shocker from the early 80's with two recognizable stars attached; Oliver Reed and Peter Fonda collecting their pay cheques, but delivering two extremes in their acting. Reed hauntingly hams it up "I really believe I'm bounded to it", while Fonda keeps it cool and collected. Outside of those two, there were some other familiar names involved. Director / co-writer William Fruet is no beginner to the genre with making films like "Death Weekend" and "Funeral Home" before this one. Cinematographer Mark Irwin shows up. Then you have the Tangerine Dream adding to the score. Although these curious inclusions don't add too much and it shows in the final product. A gigantic, deadly serpent is transported from a Pacific island back to the States and is kept boxed up at a university where Dr. Brazilian is hired by wealthy businessman Jason Kincaid to experiment on the telepathy link Kincaid shares with the serpent. However before doing so, it comes loose and goes about terrorising the community. The systematic plot actually starts of rather well setting up the mood, but it really does lose its way when it goes on the rampage becoming simple-minded, outrageous and ending on a very lousy, incoherent climax. Neither is it that fun when the rampage transpires or in its tackiness. Even the muddled script has a few story threads, which are incompatible and abrupt like the sub-plot involving a religious snake worshiping fanatic. Director Fruet's handling is cramp and rudimentary in its execution with lopsided pacing by lingering on many talky exchanges. Supposedly the production run-out of money towards the back-end and its shows by padding it out with recycled snake-vision shots that happened early on in the film. The attack sequences are too little and the ones that occur are vicious and jolting in an exploitative manner, but rather tensionless with the snake mainly staying off-screen and the victim being thrown around. We only get glimpses of the serpent, until it comes to the final reel when the rubber beast is fully shown. It doesn't look that great and you could see why the lighting was mostly dim. On the other hand blue-filtered serpent vision got a real work out and was well-done. The most memorable thing about this production would have to be the aftermath of the serpent's attacks, as the ghastly make-up FX was vivid in its depiction of the skin bubbling and blistering. Outside the two stars there were decent support from Kerrie Keane and Al Waxman."Spasms" has a poor reputation and rightfully so, but I was slightly entertained.

MonteCarloMan Spasms stars Oliver Reed as Jason Kincaid, a wealthy big game hunter who, while hunting in the jungle of a remote island, becomes cursed by a demonic serpent. Since the encounter, the hunter is telepathically linked to each attack done by the snake by way of an all-blue color perspective. The serpent is eventually captured after a vicious rampage against the island's native inhabitants and smuggled to North America for research when it escapes it's handlers. From there all hell breaks loose setting up a final, fateful confrontation with Reed's character. Spasms is a fairly decent suspense movie that will keep you riveted as you follow the snake's indiscriminate path toward each doomed victim it encounters. Special effects are generally good for it's time, showing some of the damage impact of the serpent's poison on it's victims but shots of the rarely shown snake itself does reveal some limitations due to lack of budget...this movie would be a good candidate for a CGI enhanced remake with increased budget to tie up the original's loose ends; mainly the believability of the snake itself. The movie is loosely adapted from the novel "Death Bite". Spasms is an increasingly hard to find title which so far is only available in it's out-of-print VHS format.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Oh come on, yes this is bad. This movie is so bad I just had to come here and tell everyone about it. It's not even bad on a "so bad it's good" level: I put this on the other night while some of the guys were over. They left at about the twenty five minute mark for the art bar, which should have spoken volumes. First impressions are usually correct. Instead of some tripped out perverse creature feature epic, what starts out as a kind of intriguing voodoo revenge crossed with nature striking back drama quickly devolves into a giant rampaging rubbery monster movie.The tipoff should have been the Point-Of-View photography meant to show the snake's view of the world as it stalked & attacked it's prey. When handled correctly (i.e. ALIENS 3 or even RATMAN with David Warbeck) P.O.V. photography can add an element to a film by showing people reacting to a genuine menace. Here it is just a relatively cheap gimmick meant to take the place of showing the monster, however, and nothing really important or revealing is seen during the P.O.V. shots to indicate that hey! this is a big, weird, freaky snake on the rampage. SPASMS could have been a movie about a monster kitty cat on the loose or maybe a runaway vacuum cleaner. Come to think of it, now THERE is an idea!!The choice of having the monster be a snake was arbitrary, and raises a couple of silly, nagging questions about the thing: How was it able to send pretty brunette coeds flying through the air with enough force to not just smash into a bathroom door, but fly clean through the door to smack against the shower stall? Snakes have no arms or fingers, no feet to dig into the ground to get a firm purchase on the floor and use momentum to get a 125lb human body into motion. Maybe it was smacking people around with it's head like a baseball bat. Evidence to the contrary, the snake was also intelligent enough to have seen horror movies and know where to go to kill people, most notably a college dormitory. It also knew where Oliver Reed lived, suggesting access to a roll-a-decks. This is some snake.The one thing I was pleased by in regards to the film is that while some live snakes were used during the early voodoo/mystics scenes, none were used in the big horror finale. None appear to have been used to ill ends during the course of the film, let alone exploited for their sexual connotations. Which when you think about it isn't exactly an easy thing to do in a horror movie about snakes, especially those with naked shower scenes set in coed dormitories. Stripped of it's latent phallic horror the snake becomes just another juggernaut of animal-friendly destruction. The producers instead relied on a cheap looking giant rubber snake puppet which got laughs even when attacking the coed in the shower -- which is never shown by the way. How can you fault a movie for not being exploitational enough? Next time anyone asks, point them in the direction of SPASMS. Great, sleazy name for a movie, but if you are looking for lurid thrills forget it, the people who made this film had something else in mind.Just what it is I haven't a clue: It doesn't really work as a monster thriller until about the final 15 minutes by when most people would have followed the boys out the door to the art bar, where you can't even smoke anymore. Fans of Peter Fonda will like the movie, and devotees of dumb, rubbery grade C monster movies will be well served, though I will personally qualify this film as an enigma who's existence can only be explained by contract obligations.4/10: Has about a half dozen good laughs, two really nice breasts, and a conclusion rather than an ending.