Death Curse of Tartu. William Grefé, 1966.
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Edition screened: Included in Arrow Blu-ray box set He Came from the Swamp: The William Grefé Collection, released 2020. English language. Runtime approximately 88 minutes.
Summary: Snake abuse.
Details:
1) A very large constrictor is loosely draped in a small tree, about nine feet above the man below. Then cut to the man, as we see the enormous snake obviously thrown at him at 18:56, the snake hitting the man in an awkward fashion resembling neither a drop nor an attack in any way. The man “wrestles” the obviously tame snake through 19:58, rolling around on it with his full weight, maneuvering its head as though he is fending off a bite, and strangling the snake, pushing his thumbs deep into its throat. The poor snake glides off after being released/vanquished.
2) An average-sized snake is picked up nonchalantly at 20:06 and dropped into a clear polyethylene bag, the typed used for fish at a pet store. The man then knots the end closed with little air in the bag, like he was taught to do with the fish at the pet store (20:17). He walks around his morbid petting zoo setup talking with someone for a while and just puts the bag down at some point.
3) After adding to Orgy of the Dead’s evidence that average-looking girls dancing around in their underwear is not very appealing, one of these girls decides to go for a swim in what appears to be a lake of Chocolate SlimFast. We see the fin of an approaching shark at 44:00, with subsequent thrashing and foamy froth to suggest that she is being attacked. A man on shore is shown shooting into the lake at 45:45, apparently ending the apparent attack.
4) An alligator lumbers along followed by disjointed shooting, shark attack style, at 1:13:50.
This is a terrible movie, and a spoiler here has about as much effect as it would on a Chevy Citation. Interlaced with the animal abuse and underwear dancing are several scenes of death-defying archaeological adventure, including spooky cobwebs that might get on your face, large stones that must be walked around, treacherous loose gravel, and a decomposing corpse. Turns out, all this mystery is the Death Curse of a Native American and the animal attacks were him. He finally comes back to life in his true form and is wrestled/strangled to defeat just like the snake.
