I don't remember now how I found out about this film - with that said, I'm so glad I did find it and that I watched a VHS rip on YouTube.

This movie is insane. As soon as I saw the concept, I knew I had to watch it. But it exceeded any expectations I had. It starts with how they kill the snakes; I don't consider this as a spoiler as it's in the plot summary. They use a freaking BULLDOZER! They say there are 80 THOUSAND snakes in the pit when they find it. You need serious firepower for that.

The ridiculousness only goes up from there. I definitely recommend this film if you enjoy cult horror, or even a kung fu/martial arts fan, you would enjoy. I got Shaw Brothers vibes.

The one thing I didn't love is what I assume to be the live skinning of a snake, as well as the killing of many snakes in that first scene setting the pace for the murder rate through the runtime. I'm posting this as a warning for this who watch and aren't expecting to see a snake heart still beating, or a snake and a badger fighting to the death. If it makes you feel any better, it really makes you root for the snakes! The badger part was really unnecessary, and goes on for way too long.

Watching the snakes get their revenge is pretty insane. So many snakes! The snake budget for this film must have been astronomical. It's awesome watching them cause destruction in large numbers, including a massive Boa.

In all, give this a try. Skip the animal cruelty if you would rather avoid it - they make it obvious when it's about to happen. Aside from that, I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I stumbled upon it.

1st ***SPOILER*** : you know those items in the closing credits that say "No animals were harmed during the production of this movie"? Well, you won't find one in the credits for this movie. There are scenes of animal cruelty the likes of which you may have never before seen. First, it's men killing snakes on the construction site of a luxury apartment house that has apparently cut some corners to save money. Apparently, killing any snakes under these circumstances saves money because reasons. Reasons that made no sense to me, but maybe they will to someone else or maybe the Mandarin:English translation missed something. Bottom line: if you leave at least one snake alive, he will tell all the other snakes and they will plot revenge.

2nd ***SPOILER** After killing hundreds of snakes with a backhoe, shovels, machetes and knives, in the next scene the construction crew and bosses enjoy a meal of snake soup. A snake is skinned alive and its blood and its blood and organs harvested while the snake butcher explains thay the blood and gall bladder will give those who ingest them magical powers. We also get to see the still beating heart of the snake. The Big Boss drinks the blood and gall bladder squeezings for luck, but it doesn't work.

3rd ***SPOILER*** As if the first scene of snake massacre wasn't enough, then comes a scene in which snakes in a box are introduced to a Shrew and then follows another overly long series of snake deaths that I eventually fast forwarded through.

The rest of the movie is actually at times kind of funny and the scenes with live snakes are so over the top that they become hilarious, too. Think of the famous snake scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark and multiply the number of onscreen snakes by 150. That's a lot of snakes writhing on the floor and being thrown at actors by offscreen crew. Taiwan,where this was filmed, is not that big and they must have gone into the wild to capture almost every one of them. We're talking a flood of snakes above your ankles in some scenes.

I gave it a 7 because it was just so funny and over the top.

I think that I'm unshockable and then I watch something like Ren she da zhan and man, I had no idea what being shocked was.

Directed by Chi Chiang (who was also the choregrapher for Bruce Lee: The Man, the Myth and directed China Heat and Bruce Lee's Deadly Kung Fu), who wrote it with Kang-Nien Li and Kuo Jung Tsai, this is a movie that people who hate snaked will be horrified by and those that love them will be destroyed by, so there's really no one who won't be brutalized by what these guys put together. I'm not exaggerating when I say that tens of thousands of snakes appear and also not making anything up when I tell you that just as many snakes are murdered on screen, for real, in a movie that looks at Cannibal Holocaust and scoffs, "People are mad that you killed a turtle? Here, hold my San Miguel."

This Hong Kong/Taiwan film (there's also a South Korean version called War Between Man and Snakes that has five more minutes and alternate footage filmed in that country) starts with real estate boss Francis Chang ordering his men to kill all the snakes around his new luxury apartment building. What follows is a near mondo orgy of human on snake violence as snakes are chopped, slices and smashed by excavators and dumped into huge snake graves. This is not CGI, so turn back now, because no one visited this set to see if a movie called Calamity of Snakes was snake-friendly. It's kind of like all those Italain cannibal movies that show man's inhumanity to man that were made by being inhumane to man, which seems like, you guessed it, a snake eating its own tail, which is about the only bit of snake violence this movie doesn't have.

After all that, you'll hardly be mad that this steals music from Maniac and the same cues as Dawn of the Dead. There's also some Alan Parsons Project and Keith Emerson, because we all know progressive rock is prime snake murder music. Taking music is the least of this movie's sins.

It does have snakes run over, destroyed by a mongoose, gassed, hit with rocks, sliced apart with swords and even a giant snake participates in a kung fu battle against a man who lives inside a box of snakes, even keeping one inside his mouth and the snake makes the same sound effects as Godzilla.

What does work is that snakes non-stop kill humans, showing up in bathtubs, when people are making love, when folks are playing mahjong, whenever people do, well, anything. Snakes will show up - the big snake might even be psychic - wherever people are trying to just live their lives, including a moment where they spill forth from an elevator in the exact same way that blood spills out in The Shining.

Footage from this movi was edited into The Serpent Warriors, a movie that stars Earth Kitt, Christopher Mitchum and was the last role for Clint Walker. It was also released in Pakistan as Revenge of the Snakes - thanks Daily Grindhouse - with artwork that rips off The Beyond and let me tell you, I can't love that enough.

For all the meanness toward reptiles, this movie does not treat its humans any better, as there are numerous scenes of people covered by snakes, snakes are thrown at them, snakes are in their faces and at the end, someone does a burn stunt that in no way looks safe or something that someone survived.

Does it make you feel better that some of the snakes were eaten afterward and not wasted? Yeah, me neither. That said, good for Unearthed Films, who are giving a percentage of all profits from Calamity of the Snakes in all formats to Save the Snakes in continuation of their mission to protect snake populations around the world.