Spasms

1984 "You scream, you expand, you explode. A new source of evil is discovered and is out of control."
4.4| 1h30m| R| en| More Info
Released: 01 May 1984 Released
Producted By: Hyperion Productions
Country: Canada
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A gigantic serpent is captured on a remote island and shipped to an American college for experimentation.

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Director

William Fruet

Production Companies

Hyperion Productions

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Spasms Audience Reviews

Cortechba Overrated
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Freaktana A Major Disappointment
Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Scarecrow-88 Conjured up by a tribe of primitives, a giant snake returns to kill anyone in it's path. Big game hunter Jason Kincaid(Oliver Reed) is plagued by "viral telepathy"(he was bitten by the snake, whose potent venom he was immune, his brother wasn't so lucky)and seeks the help of a psychiatrist, Dr. Tom Brazilian(Peter Fonda) experimenting with extra sensory perception, hoping for an antidote to cure his "link" to the snake. Kincaid can see through the snake's eyes and even feels the pain of it's victims. Kincaid's niece, Suzanne Cavadon(Kerrie Keane), attempts, futilely, to keep the snake from entering Stateside, and her efforts to kill it fails(..she turns up the temperature of the box containing it) but a former CIA agent, Warren Crowley(Al Waxman, in all his sweaty, lecherous glory) who is paid by a Snake cult leader to kidnap it(..a member of the cult frees it while attempting to tame it), fails at the job, barely escaping with his life while the fiend is set loose on civilization. Anyway, the snake is loose on the streets as the police comb the area looking for it while Tom hopes to find it through Kincaid, by using whatever device or tool he might have at his disposal in finding it's whereabouts before more and more innocents are stalked and destroyed. Kincaid decides he must end it's reign of terror once and for all, even if it means his life. Crowley, himself, must also find it or suffer the wrath of the scorned cult leader who demands for the snake to be in his possession or else.While the attacks are ferocious, the snake is mostly shot off-screen, with director William Fruet opting to show the bodies of victims hurled around like a battered toy in the hands of a child. A lot of the film is shot in point-of-view, the screen tinted blue as we see through it's eyes as it pursues potential victims. The plot will inevitably be viewed as rather nonsensical, and rightfully so, the whole idea of a man being telepathically linked to a devil snake. The creature itself looks like a rubber snake, so perhaps it was best not to show him too much. Fonda looks and acts very disinterested; I imagine he has disowned this movie, and perhaps Oliver Reed had as well. Probably the most memorable suspense sequence occurs as Fonda and Keane search for the snake in a university greenhouse. Also, perhaps memorable is a scene involving a pretty naked girl showering as her friend is being torn to pieces by a snake in the room next to the bathroom, before it bursts through the glass door to get her. Pretty embarrassing movie for Fonda and Reed known for much better than this, a low point for two really impressive careers.
Coventry Unimaginably lame and cheap 80's movie that has Oliver Reed (in his, hands down, worst performance ever) obsessing over some kind of gigantic serpent he's inexplicably connected with. He arranges the animal to be sent over to university professor Peter Fonda's laboratory, where it naturally escapes and goes on a rampage in the nearby park and housing estate. This crap movie won't appeal to fans of grotesque creature features, nor will it to lovers of typically cheesy 80's horror. The inventors of the story were stupid enough to use an unreal snake-species, so don't expect to actually see the creature as nobody knows what it looks like. Instead, the screen turns blue when the events are supposedly seen through the snake's eyes and its victims just try to look terrified as the camera rapidly approaches them. William Fruet, who's actually a personal favorite horror director of mine because he made the very competent "House by the Lake" and "Funeral Home", totally messes things up here, as he never manages to create any tension and completely fails to make the viewer emphatic with the characters. There wasn't enough money to finish the film, so they seemingly also cut back on lighting and set pieces. The whole thing is extremely dark and lacking decors. I bet Peter Fonda is still wondering to this day what purpose he served by accepting this role, as he adds absolutely nothing at all.
Paul Andrews Spasms (which as a title means nothing) begins on an island somewhere near New Guinea. A bunch of Aboriginal natives are performing some kind of tribal ritual dancing around a bonfire, complete with severed pigs heads on poles. Suddenly a giant snake appears, well according to the film it does as we don't actually see it at this point, it kills a few natives and then gets itself captured in a net by a hunter named Mendes (Miguel Fernandez). Mendes works for rich businessman Jason Kincaid (Oliver Reed) and sends the giant snake back to the U.S. via a cargo ship, before his untimely death. However, Warren Crowley (Al Waxman) works for a secret snake worshipping religious cult run by Rev. Thomas Thanner (George Bloomfield) who wants the giant snake for himself as he believes it's the 'reincarnation of our leader'. Thanner has hired Crowley to obtain the snake, by any means necessary. Crowley bribes a Sailor (Patrick Brymer) to steal the snake. While trying to do just that the Sailor is bitten by the snake and after his arm expands and bubbles he throws himself overboard. Kincaid wants the snake because while he was out hunting, it killed his brother and bit him. Now Kincaid has a telepathic link with the snake, Kincaid hires psychologist Dr. Tom Brazilian (Peter Fonda) to try & figure out the hold the snake has with him. Tom feels that telepathy is caused by a virus & and that the virus may have been present in the snakes venom therefore spiritually connecting both of them. Hey, I didn't write this stuff OK? So the snake arrives in America & Tom convinces a friend, Dr. Claire Rothman (Marilyn Lightstone) to keep it in her laboratory at the local University. That night Crowley & one of his goons Duncan Tyrone (Angus MacInnes) break into the University to try and steal the snake but only succeed in letting it escape into the night! A giant venomous snake is loose, Tom, along with Kincaid's niece Suzanne Cavadon (Kerrie Keane) decide they are responsible. As the snake starts to kill local residents they set about locating & destroying it, but Kincaid & Crowley have other plans for it. Directed by William Fruet this is one silly excuse for a film. The script by Don Enright from the novel Death Bite by Micheal Maryk & Brent Monahan is an absolute mess as you can probably tell from my plot synopsis which makes it sound a lot better than it actually is. The main problem is that Spasms has no sense of it's own absurdity, bizarre snake worshipping cults, giant serpents attacking naked women in the shower, telepathic links between humans & snakes are taken 100% seriously and played totally straight. It simply doesn't work & comes across as extremely silly. Having said that it moves along at a fair pace & isn't too boring at only 85 minutes. The ending was a bit of a disappointment too, rather lazy & predictable. The snake itself isn't seen in it's entirety, just glimpses to start with & by the end Fruet gives us a chance to scrutinise it's head which wasn't a good idea considering the cheapness of the effect. Spasms stand out moment has to be the part where Crowley is bitten, his body and face starts to expand & bubble in a very impressive & gross special effect by Dick Smith among others. There isn't any other gore or violence worth mentioning besides this. The shower scene is wholly gratuitous, did the female victim really need to be undressed taking a shower for the scene to work? Acting wise what on Earth are Oliver Reed & Peter Fonda doing in this complete & utter nonsense? All I can think is that they needed beer money badly, if you know what I mean. The film is generally well made with nice production values & cinematography, although director Fruet fails to inject the film with much flair or imagination. Spasms as a horror film fails totally, as a piece of so-so entertainment it's OK, as a bizarre head shaking curiosity it can't be bettered. Just about worth watching if your a die hard horror fan (like me), otherwise don't bother.
gridoon An astonishingly inept monster/slasher movie, in which the monster is just a reptilian version of Jason ("Friday the 13th") : it runs around (and runs faster than a jaguar), killing people with no reason. The film is irredeemably bad and no sane person will want to waste 86 minutes of his life with it.