Fans of kaiju cinema, in which huge monsters usually attack humanity (or other huge monsters), really can’t complain at the moment: Thanks to the MonsterVerse about Godzilla and King Kong, there are regularly bigger kaiju hits than ever before in the house, otherwise the giant creatures are very present in the cinema – whether in Paul WS Anderson’s “Monster Hunter”, in DC’s crazy anti-hero spectacle “The Suicide Squad’ or in ‘The Kaiju Score’, which is currently being worked on. But even if Hollywood and Co. regularly provide fresh supplies, many genre fans often face a completely different challenge: getting their hands on older, forgotten films.
Collectors of Anolis releases, for example, know that it is often not easy to actually get hold of an original and not a bootleg – and that it can quickly become very expensive, even with a commercially available standard DVD. Compared to this is the German DVD premiere of “Terror Serpent” (release date: September 10, 2022) downright a bargain. Because it not only contains Godfrey Ho’s cut version of the snake horror film, but also the Taiwanese original “King Of Snakes” as well as another film by Ho (“The Snake Monster”) on a third disc. The icing on the cake besides the fact that the DVDs will definitely be uncut compared to the ancient VHS? The packaging! Because “Terror Serpent” appears in six super strictly limited media book editions in different designs, of which only three variants are available at Amazon:
» “Terror Serpent” Mediabook A at Amazon*
Cover A (see title picture of this news) is limited to 333 pieces.
» “Terror Serpent” Mediabook B at Amazon*
Cover B is limited to 222 pieces.
» “Terror Serpent” Mediabook C at Amazon*
Like variants C and D, cover E is limited to 111 pieces. There will only be 66 copies of Cover F.
While the aforementioned “The Snake Monster” only fits into the Ho set thematically and is therefore part of the Mediabook equipment, at this point we want to take a look at “King Of Snakes” and “Terror Serpent” – which are actually it’s about the same movie. At least to a certain extent.
King Of Snakes is a 1984 Taiwanese monster filmin which little Tingting (Tarcy Su) discovers a snake while fishing, which she secretly takes home – before disaster takes its course.
“Terror Serpent” is not only based on “King Of Snakes”, but consists largely of the same recordings – however, it was re-edited and expanded with additional scenes. This was nothing unusual at the time, especially for Hong Kong director icon and trash pope Godfrey Ho, who secured the rights to numerous films in order to create completely new stories in the style of Frankenstein. The great thing about the DVD premiere here is that both versions are on board.
In any case, anyone who has a soft spot for the genre can look forward to an absolute novelty that deserves a special place on the monster shelf. If you don’t like the Godzilla films from the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, in which flesh and blood people in monster costumes still rolled down miniature cities, you can save on this film right here – both “Terror Serpent ‘ and ‘King Of Snakes’…
*The links to the Amazon offer are so-called affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, we will receive a commission.
