Very few movies fit the core attitude of Mondo Macabro better than The Hungry Snake Woman, a 1986 Indonesian stunner that fits right in with some of the label's essential weird world staples like Mystics in Bali and Alucarda. Utterly nuts and unpredictable, this is one of several vehicles for local horror icon Suzzanna, profiled in the 2024 documentary Suzzanna: The Queen of Black Magic. She performed multiple stints in films for director Sisworo Gautama Putra (Satan's Slave, Sundelbolong) playing Blorong, or the Snake Queen, in a trio of outlandish genre mashups including this one. Gore, snake monsters, sex, a flying chariot, vampirism, a woman in a see-through gold leotard jamming to the theme from a beloved 1981 slasher with a pair of disembodied hands, and a concluding message about the value of earning money through hard work all coalesce here into a screwy 82 minutes that offers at least one or two jaw-dropping surprises every five minutes.

We start off with a bang as shotgun-toting hunter (Rudy) is separated from his helper, Suzy (Suzzanna), while following a horde of young women in the wilderness. He ends up in a cavern where an earthquake disturbs the meditating Snake Queen (Suzzanna again), who gets one of the splashiest entrances you'll ever see. After her head temporarily melts to reveal a big snake inside, the action shifts to abusive jerk Burhan (Bangun) who's so resentful of being poor and unemployed that he shoves a screwdriver into the hand of his virginal girlfriend Carlita (Anwar) and tries to rape her. She understandably flees and seeks help from some cops who quickly form a mob to chase Burhan into the woods. There he comes across a rival snake woman, Nyi Lajang and her cackling midget husband, Ki Lajang, who direct him to the Snake Queen to fulfill his desire to be rich and respected. However, he has to repay the favor after the Snake Queen grants his wish, which involves turning into Dracula(!) so he can feed off of three women within one week. As part of the bargain he has to sleep with the Snake Queen and jam a silver needle into her when she orgasms, which will lock her into snake form forever. After that all of our characters converge in a huge stew of black magic insanity.

Normally Suzzanna would be the main attraction in a film like this, but here she has very stiff competition from every other element in this film and actors whose performances are always in overdrive. This would basically fall into the horror genre since it involves plenty of macabre and grotesque imagery (including a bit of animal mistreatment, mainly some scorpions), but it flirts with fantasy and comedy as well when it isn't just utterly unclassifiable surrealism. It's a shame the first of the Snake Queen films is reportedly far beyond any hope of salvaging beyond the current cropped VHS dupes out there, but thankfully this one has survived and continued to flourish well into the current century.

Presented in a restoration from the original negative, The Hungry Snake Woman looks marvelous on Mondo Macabro's bare bones Blu-ray release (which came out in a limited red edition in late 2024 and hit general retail in 2025). Apart from some iffy black levels that appear to be inherent in the source, it's quite lovely with punchy colors and a lot of detail. The DTS-HD MA Indonesian original audio and English-dubbed 2.0 mono audio both sound perfectly fine, with optional English-translated subtitles provided. The Indonesian dialogue is a lot saltier (tons of references to prostitution) and more coherent, while the English dub is definitely funnier; try both and see which one you prefer.

Reviewed on February 14, 2025