Black Cobra Woman

Black Cobra Woman is the second Joe D’Amato film I’ve seen. And it is overall better than Caribbean Papaya. Though both films give the distinct impression that D’Amato is ripping himself and his more popular films off. Black Cobra Woman is still far from the most extreme D’Amato film. I’m happy that I don’t have any reason to seek those out, they do sound pretty sleazy. This one is mostly pretty tame, with one notable scene. Near the end of the film, a guy is killed by having a snake shoved up his ass. It’s actually less visually graphic than you’re probably picturing. But even then, it’s easily the most notable part of the movie. In fact, I’m struggling to remember what happened in this movie both before and after the snake-ass murder. A scene like that will really wipe everything else out of your head.

The film focuses on a rivalry and love triangle between two brothers. Younger brother, Jules meets Eva who invites him to watch her perform at a nightclub. Jules takes older brother, Judas along to see Eva dance topless with a snake. Both men are smitten. Judas even offers that Eva can live at his house and not even have sex with him. So generous! While she initially rejects his offer, Eva eventually relents and moves in. Now introduced to the brothers’ society friends, many take an interest in Eva. Eva takes particular interest in a woman named Gerri. She seems more interested in spending time with Gerri than either brother. Meanwhile, Jules grows more and more jealous of the others whom Eva gives attention to. And well, there’s a bunch of snakes knocking around that the movie tells you are definitely super-duper deadly.

There’s more lesbian content in Black Cobra Woman than I expected. Eva’s bisexuality is pretty omnipresent, but somehow her queerness is rarely plot-related. The actual plot of the film largely concerns her relationship with the two brothers. The fact that she ignores their attention for a woman is important, but nothing would change if it was a man instead. So, Gerri is more of a plot device than an actual character. Yet still, theirs is the best relationship in the movie. It’s the only one that isn’t transactional for Eva; all her relationships with men have a financial or safety aspect and at least once, she doesn’t even seem to enjoy it. But she enjoys being with Gerri, even confessing her love to her. The film is surprisingly light on actual lesbian kissing or sex, but they do get a hitachi magic wand massage together? Go off, queens.

Many of Joe D’Amato’s films feature exotic locations and feel a bit like a travelogue. The location plays as much importance as a character, and more than some. Such is the case here. Hong Kong is portrayed as exciting and exotic. I think the vibe the film is going for is that watching the movie is like a vacation itself. That’s what the pacing feels like, anyway. For a movie with snake-ass murder, this thing really meanders its way into the third act. Admittedly, much of this meandering time is made up of montages of Eva and Gerri doing hot girl shit. But everything Eva does is hot girl shit! We can also move the story or at least, the scene along with a bit more urgency, surely?

Black Cobra Woman is supposed to be a pretty disposable piece of exploitation. Breezy, almost. But it doesn’t hit that way for me. The mixture of treatment of women within the movie and by the movie makes it something of a tragedy. And not just because of the disappointing last scene. This whole movie is about how men feel entitled to a woman’s attention because they’re personally attracted to her. And that entitlement makes them jealous, violent and downright murderous. And the film itself is full of male gaze bullshit that denies Eva a level of agency. The movie doesn’t understand women or female sexuality. I think that’s best exemplified by the masturbation scene where Eva spends half of it apparently picturing herself dancing topless. Yeah, that’s not how women work. But congratulations on adding another nude scene, I guess. That’s clearly more of the priority here.

I almost liked Black Cobra Woman. I understood its reason for existence, it had one very fun death scene and more queer content than I expected. But this still isn’t a good movie. The pacing is bad, it’s pretty bad about women and if you want something extreme, this isn’t it either. Still, I complained previously about how I couldn’t find a single theatrical released WLW film from 1976. Well, I was wrong. Black Cobra Woman exists to carry the flag for 1976. On second thought, maybe I’ll leave the flag in the hands of technically a TV episode but also, it’s just a TV movie: The War Widow. That one’s probably better representation for 1976 sapphics. But if you want your representation to be topless, bisexual and snake-obsessed, I’m glad you’ve got that option too.

Overall rating: 4.7/10

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