Watch Cult of the Cobra For Free

Memorable, crazy movie

Absolutely the worst movie.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This off-beat horror flick is cheesier than those bargain nachos. Big thrill during the Drive-In Movie era. While stationed in Asia,six Air Force buddies sneak into a secret ceremony where cobras are worshiped. After their presence is discovered, a high priest puts a curse on the men. After returning to the states, the group of friends more or less laugh off the curse. Things get suspicious after the arrival of a vengeful priestess, Lisa Moya(Faith Domerue), who moves into an apartment right across the hall from one of the Air Force buddies Tom Markel(Marshall Thompson). Tom is on the rebound after his girl jilted him for one of his buddies. Here is the opportunity to spend time with attractive and too available Lisa . Mysteriously the airmen start dying one by one. Shadows of a cobra and snake venom are involved with each death. Oooooh! Cast includes: Kathleen Hughes, Richard Long, William Reynolds, Jack Kelly, Myrna Hansen and David Janssen.

This motion picture is more remarkable than what I thought. Although it is obviously a simple B product, it seems there were intentions to turn it into something more ambitious, in the line of "Cat People" (1942). It is true that Lisa Moya —the cobra woman played by Faith Domergue— is not as a developed character as Simone Simon's Irena Dubrovna in Tourneur's classic, and the erotic elements are not as strong, but Lisa shows anguish and pain as she seems to be in love with one of the American soldiers she has to kill for desecrating the cult of the cobra. Besides, the film has other resonances today: maybe in the pre-Vietnam time it was made (1955) it was taken for granted that all American soldiers in service abroad were very cute guys who meant no harm as they fought for "democracy", but today we know how things have always been with troops from any nation in invaded countries, and how often they have victimized their people. And last but not least it is interesting to watch all these future TV male stars together: Marshall Thompson, Richard Long, William Reynolds, Jack Kelly and David Janssen.

GIs in 1945 Asia are introduced to the actual ceremony of a "female human cobra"(essentially a woman in costume who is slithery like a snake)by a native snake charmer who warns them to keep quiet inside their hooded robes, but Nick of the group stupidly attempts to take a snapshot resulting in the American soldiers being cursed. This curse entails that all the GIs will be hunted down one at a time by the cobra woman, to be victims of her poisonous bite. Returning home absent Nick(who is "reinfected" when a snake enters his room in a hospital, the bite killing him)to New York, the GIs, now civilians, aren't out of harm's way. Tom(Marshall Thompson; IT! TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE/ FIEND WITHOUT A FACE)and Paul(Richard Long; THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL/THE TWILIGHT ZONE) are both in love with a girl(Paul is chosen over Tom, though)which doesn't end their friendship(the guys are roommates). A new tenant moves in across from Tom and Paul, an exotic foreigner named Lisa(Faith Domergue). Tom develops feelings for her right away, but Lisa immediately gives him the cold shoulder any time he attempts to snatch a kiss. There's a reason why Lisa wants to distance herself from Tom romantically, but soon her feelings for him become too difficult to ignore. Something will, however, drive a wedge between their blossoming love affair and that is what Lisa is plagued with.While this is a Universal Studios picture, to me it favored something more like a Columbia Pictures product. The filmmakers decide to avoid showing an actual human cobra, opting instead to show Faith Domergue's silhouette on the wall metamorphose into a cobra(there's an ending where we see the actual cobra turn back into a human through dissolve which is flawed because it's highly doubtful that a naked snake would transform into a woman with all of her jewelry and wardrobe on). Most of the attacks on the GIs are shot from point-of-view through the eye vision of the cobra as the victims respond with fright at what is coming towards them. This movie does resemble CAT PEOPLE in that Tom falls in love with a beautiful woman he can not attain due to her terrible predicament. The filmmakers establish Lisa's situation in subtle ways like how animals react towards her, such as Tom's dog or a horse on the street. When stage actress Julia(the lovely Kathleen Hughes)begins reading on snake cults and customary practices, like in CAT PEOPLE when Simone Simon's Irena becomes a deadly threat to her husband's best friend(and future lover), Alice(Jane Randolph), Domergue's Lisa follows a similar mold, taking cobra form at the end, awaiting her in the dressing room. Domergue is a striking beauty, dressed to the nines in sophisticated wardrobe. For some reason, CULT OF THE COBRA never quite takes off but it might appeal to fans of Val Lewton and the "less is more" approach, focused more on the soap opera dramatics of Tom and Lisa's relationship and what they are up against..I imagine that had it been made 10 years previous, CULT OF THE COBRA might've been more of a creature feature with Domergue an actual cobra woman.

On paper, this was arguably the least promising entry among Universal's second exclusive "Sci-Fi Collection" – but it turned out to be quite enjoyable in its unassumingly campy way, lying somewhere between the exotic fancy of Universal's earlier COBRA WOMAN (1944) and the cautionary Gothic of Hammer's THE REPTILE (1966). Director Lyon generally cut his teeth on a variety of Western oaters and, while not exactly inspired by the material at hand, elicits a very good performance from his leading lady Faith Domergue – a former protégée' of the legendary Howard Hughes. The story starts at the tail-end of WWII where six G.I. buddies, looking for some kicks before leaving Asia for home, attend a clandestine ceremony held by the titular sect where no reptiles are actually worshipped – instead we have a woman painted like one who comes out of a large vase and crawls around on the floor! Suspicious Richard Long, embittered (and incredulous) Marshall Thompson and a carefree David Janssen comprise half of the band of infidels who incite the wrath of the cultists by their irreverent presence (foolishly, one of them photo-graphs the ceremony, even if he had been repeatedly warned beforehand not to); needless to say, the proverbial curse is invoked on them by the High Priest which is subsequently enforced when they return to the United States. In quick succession, four of them get offed (including bowling alley owner Janssen who expires in a fairly spectacular car crash) after having a close encounter with a cobra; their demise coincides with Thompson's meeting with his sensuous but enigmatic neighbor Domergue. There are virtually no transformation scenes (or, rather, only in silhouette and via a quick dissolve to boot!) and we only get a good look at the large cobra during its last attack backstage in a theater, where it eventually receives its come-uppance by being pushed out a high window by Thompson (for whom the conflicted Domergue actually almost jeopardized her mission!)...and which is just as well, since there is no creature on earth that I loathe or fear more! Incidentally, I was somewhat bugged by the fact that when the dead snake inevitably regains human form, it is unaccountably dressed in the black gown Domergue wore prior to her demise!