King Cobra (1999 Video) User Reviews

King Cobblers!

[Rob_Taylor · 4/10 · 3 January 2004]

I know, it's crap! But even so, I derived a HUGE amount of enjoyment from this stupid, stupid movie.

It starts off almost like its aiming to be a serious horror flick. But as the movie progresses, it just gets sillier and sillier and sillier. What's more, the cast all seem to realise it's getting increasingly ludicrous and camp it up ever more enthusiastically.

That's not to excuse the terrible acting, especially before the "camp" factor sets in. There's one scene with the doctor (Hildebrand) and the cop lady (Fallo) where she gives him a gift, they kiss and cuddle a bit, then he throws her off and launches into THE WORST monologue about how he can't get involved because he has his future to think about, and how he can never amount to anything in the small town and must go to the big city etc. etc. Truly vomit inducing stuff and all delivered so woodenly that I was rolling about with laughter.

It was after this scene (quite early on) that I realised what a treat this film was going to be (in terms of bad movie-ness). It has some stumbles, but its really a riot if you treat it as a big joke, as the cast seem to later on.

Pat Morita also gets one of the most protracted death scenes I've ever witnessed on film. Regardless of his immunity to poison, just how many six-inch fang bites can one man survive before he dies of blood loss, if nothing else? You'll find out in this film!

Things to watch out for:

1. The aforementioned awful monologue.

2. A cameo by Erik Estrada (of CHiPs fame) as a gay guy.

3. The sheriff, who spits tobacco into a cup constantly and has some of the best one-liners in the movie.

4. The snake, which is just ridiculously funny whenever you see it.

5. The "local hunters", who are just fun to watch whenever they are on screen.

6. Pat Morita, who looks constantly embarrassed to be in this film.

All in all, a silly movie for lovers of bad movies! It has all the horror cliches you'd expect, along with clumsy exposition, bad acting and poor effects. But it is fun, if you treat it as pure crap. Try and see it as a serious film, and you are doomed to disappointment.

Watchable if you have nothing else to do

[sveknu · 3/10 · 25 July 2005]

Is this a low budget movie?: YES

Is the acting bad?: YES

Is this movie a bad one?: NO DOUBT

BUT, is this movie entertaining?: YES, but only in limited periods of time. If you want to enjoy "King Cobra", you have to block out all expectations of this being a great film, and just erase your memory of great films you've previously seen. Only if you do that, there's a possible that it will entertain you. One thing that helps a bit, it that the special effects doesn't look that bad. But since this is really low-budget, the big snake hasn't that much screen time. And for the opening scene, just forget that it was part of the movie, because it has to be one of the worst scenes that I've seen. Ever.

Rattler in the Hood?

[teuthis · 2/10 · 11 March 2006]

Snake movies are the worst. And this one is the equal of any. A King Cobra/Rattlesnake hybrid has escaped from a lab wrecked by two of the most insane scientists in film history. The scene was brief, but possibly the most entertaining in the film. The monstrous mutation has claimed a small, rural town as its territory. Of course they are about to have a festival a beer fest no less! And will the Mayor cancel the festival because a couple of people are killed? What do you think?

The acting in King Cobra is remedial at best. Even Pat Morita cannot make is role entertaining. The stoic Casey Fallo was a pretty good reason to keep viewing. She was nice to watch in what little she was given to do. Everyone else was just not in attendance.

Perhaps the major problem for me in the film is that a snake was able to outsmart one-and-all homo sapiens throughout most of the film. And the two ton beast seemingly appeared and disappeared with all the velocity of a mako shark. He wafted through the delicate branches of trees with the grace of a ninety pound ballerina. A trained deputy is cornered against a tree by the rampaging reptile, and she panics, seemingly forgets she has a pistol in her hand, and screams for the hero; who drop-kicks the lightnening-fast saurian without even getting bitten.

One must always suspend belief to some extent in order to enjoy a monster film. However, the director created such a "super snake", and such inept humans, that King Cobra far surpassed my ability to stretch reality.This mess eventually became boring and predictable. That is the only real sin a monster film can commit. And it is terminal in King Cobra.

But it just might be that the worst faux pas of this film was the beer recipe recited by the supposed artisan brewer. If you are able to muster the gumption to watch this snake calamity, listen carefully for it. This "master brewer" is concocting a classic American mass-produced, tasteless near beer; not a sapid, artisan brew. After all, snakes are a dime a dozen, but a really good beer is sacred.

I cannot recommend this film, unless one is in traction and cannot reach the remote. However, perhaps enough good beer could make it tolerable?

Frightening indeed.

[mbulthaus · 1/10 · 5 February 2001]

Even taking into account what obviously was a miniscule budget, one of the worst efforts I've been exposed to. In a nutshell, this is a tale of a small town under the attack of a genetically engineered, grossly oversized mutant snake (half King Cobra-half rattlesnake) that has escaped from the local laboratory. To remedy this awful situation, they hire expert snake wrangler Mr. Miyagi to corral the ferocious reptile. Honestly, Pat Morita would have won more of my respect by signing on for another Karate Kid movie. And despite the fact that both the plot and the realism are miserable, every cloud has a silver lining - this movie is so bad that laughter is all but guaranteed. That's the only reason you'll make it to the end. And if you do, there's gold at the end of the rainbow. In one of the most outstanding moments in bad movie history, the movie's final scene features one of our heroes delivering a breathtaking drop kick to the snake that is guaranteed to have you doubled over in laughter while frantically reaching for the rewind button. You've got to see it to believe it.

Things Learned From Watching "King Cobra"

[pacuchinus · 19 April 2010]

1) You can survive an explosion straight to your face and only suffer from a missing eye.

2) The "African King Cobra" exists, even if king cobras only live in Asia.

3) Aggression makes things bigger.

4) A king cobra/rattlesnake hybrid can spit venom, even if both species are incapable of doing so.

5) Rattlesnakes rattle when they're hunting. Screw being silent.

6) A king cobra/rattlesnake hybrid can make Jurassic Park Raptor noises.

7) Bullets do not affect a king cobra/rattlesnake hybrid at all.

8) A beer festival is way too important to mind the lives of innocent civilians.

9) Never trust people from you snake-hunting team, as they might mistake sleeping gas for toxic gas.

10) Expect the unexpected.

The snakes scenes deliver the goods with scares and chills though with short budget

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 28 May 2007]

The film tells about Dr Burns in charge a environment lab making scientific experiments but it turns out to be a bio-genetically King Cobra that has a taste for human flesh .The researcher makes a chemical crossing two species, creating a weird and dangerous hybrid ,being transformed into deadly vipers: an African King Cobra and an American rattle snake with approximate length of thirty feet and whose bites killing its victims.But the laboratory instantly explodes .Two years later the giant snake makes a reappearance and and get loose, attacking at a small town and threaten the populace.Noriyuki, Pat Morita as a snakes expert tells: the African King cobra kills more people than one shark along hundred years .Morita says the snakes have bitten him 167 occasions and he's continuously injecting serum and keeps records with a bite black Mamba snake.The King Cobra simulates death for attraction the victims. and causing a breakdown of the blood cells.The poisonous Cobra-Rattler attack at random and slither down the mountainside,woods and slither around small town,ready to attack anyone in its path.

This is an average scary snake movie .Creepy,scary,campy and low budgeter story about a large snake attacking human beings. Mediocre performances though the actors reacts appropriately to becoming snake food.Rather sympathetic characterization by Pat Morita for the horror genre.Besides Hoyt Axton as the Mayor and Eric Strada as a gay man organizing the brew-fest.The snake are made by Animatronics ,no by nowadays very prolific computer generator,as usual. Another films about this sub-genre are : SSS(Bernard Kowalski),the successful Anaconda(Luis Llosa with Jennifer López),Python 1,2,Boa and Rattlers.The motion picture is regularly directed by David Hillenbrand.

There's only one reason to watch this movie

[Phillemos · 4/10 · 20 August 2006]

This is a pretty bad killer-snake movie. Mad scientist fooling around accidentally creates killer snake. It's a fairly slow-paced movie, but there is an interesting cast with Pat Morita and an amusing cameo from Erik Estrada playing a gay festival organizer. There are also some lines that are derivative of "Jaws," (i.e., "We're going to neeed bigger guns") and the movie is on the whole quite similar to "Jaws," except of course with a killer snake. The special effects are ordinary, and even though it's a horror movie the directors seem to take extreme steps to avoid showing violence. There is only one good reason to watch this movie, and that is the beautiful Kasey Fallo, who plays the deputy sheriff. She does a good job, and as in her other movie "Pinata: Survival Island" she is scrappy and finds a way to survive in the end. Basically, two scenes stand out in my mind. 1) When Kasey Fallo tries to get the Scott Brandon love-interest guy to stay in their small town (prior to Seth the Snake's rampage), he goes on a tirade about how he hates the town and wants to be a big-shot city doctor. And he does so with all the passion of a guy who's reading a telepromptor. 2) Pat Morita starts questioning the scientist about why we wanted to cross-breed two deadly snakes, and the two look as if they're about to get into a throw-down brawl. Then Pat puts on his "Karate Kid" hat and spends the next five minutes talking about "respecting" the snake. I would give this movie a 3, because it's pretty bad, but the lovely Kasey's appearance motivates me to move it up to a 4.

Snakes can backpedal?

[bullions27 · 1/10 · 6 April 2002]

One of the absolute worst man-against-wildlife films I have ever seen. What we have here are a couple of characters obviously ripped from Arachnophobia and Jaws with cliched personalities confronted by some really big snake from out the blue in a small rural town. Sweet, it's the premise from Arachnophobia as well. Speaking of hacks, it's wonderful how the writer decided to go steal lines from the Temple of Doom when his characters began to enact their moronic plan to capture the big snake. What does he think; the audience is that stupid?

One thing that puzzled me after watching this monstrosity... the tube or whatever gas chamber they used against the snake... it looked to be about half the length of the Cobra, yet they made it impossibly long somehow when bad actor decided to lure the snake into it by crawling in. I guess this is called drama. Anyway, the snake realizes its foolishness, and backpedals to escape. ????????? Bad actor and actress realize themselves, they are unable to seal off the other end because they won't have enough time (even though it would have taken probably a few seconds to cover the distance). Instead they took the time to push it into a tree. WHY???

There once was a snake named Seth

[Bogmeister · 3/10 · 22 July 2005]

30 feet of pure terror! So proclaims the jacket ad. The monster snake is actually a Cobra-Rattlesnake creation, the result of genetic tinkering. After the obligatory lab explosion, it escapes and settles down in a small rural town to make life hectic for the hicks, who call in snake-expert Pat Morita (from Happy Days and the "Karate Kid" movies). This flic is rather low-budget and must have went direct-to-video. I'm not really sure how much of it is unintentionally funny or tongue-in-cheek (especially the climactic battle between Morita & the Monster, who, by the way, is named Seth). But, it comes off as entertaining in a goofy, lopsided manner, hearkening back to all those monster flics of the 1950s (and the 1970s, come to think of it). There weren't that many giant snake movies back then, however, instead mostly giant insects and an occasional lizard. Then we got "Anaconda" in '97 and the rest is history - the Sci-Fi Channel has a sub genre load of these by now. The snake-monster itself in "King Cobra" is fairly well executed, showing that even with a very low budget, FX can be done in a reasonable fashion these days. Lucky us.

More horrors from the laboratory

[JohnSeal · 2/10 · 19 March 2000]

This time a crazed scientist produces a genetically enhanced giant 'King Cobra' that seems to be made out of rattlesnake hide. You'll want to hide from this dog in the video store. Don't be tempted to rent it...you'll feel snakebit.

About the only thing that is amazing about this film is how bad it is!!!!!!!

[Dasha · 1/10 · 31 August 1999]

This is one of the worst films I have ever had the displeasure of watching. The snake was ridiculously poor as was the acting; although i didn't hire the film because i thought it would be the next Citizen Kane but I thought the special effects would be good; I was wrong there wasn't any special effects. Do yourself a favor and never, never hire this film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great horror flick!

[tracyrobyn · 10/10 · 5 June 2001]

I loved this movie! I thought it was quite original in mutating a King Cobra and a Rattlesnake together and having it grow 30 feet long and terrorise a countryside! Pat Morita was wonderful, as always! My favourite quote "I do not run well, I'm Japanese. Japanese weren't meant to run, they were meant to last!" The rest of the actors were awful, but Pat and Seth were great! Sequel!!!! I want to see Seth again. Actually, I want Seth!!! Forget the Watch-Dog!!! =)

an objective review of King cobra

[leeaf83 · 7/10 · 27 January 2006]

I saw this movie after reading plenty of the negative reviews on IMDb so I had low expectations.

The good; -this film had the scariest and most realistic snake of any snake movie I've seen including the Anaconda and Python movies. I've seen people slam it because the snake didn't look real enough but even the shark in Jaws looked rather fake (not claiming this is equal to Jaws or even in the same class but people need to cut films some slack and realize that not everything is 100% factual). -a fairly good musical score -scares: a few scenes where the snake pops out of nowhere to attack really sends chills up your spine -Pat Moriata: I have never seen the Karate Kid so I have no bias but he definitely played a cool character

the bad: -several Jaws rip off scenes; the scare at the beginning (though to be fair all giant predator movies seem to have attacks at the start) except done inferiorly due to breaking the rule of showing the creature on the first attack. The blatant ripoff line "we're going to need bigger guns" and the plot line of a money hungry mayor not wanting to close down an event to protect the civilians from the monster and eventual hiring of an expert of the monster in question -some of the death scenes were long and drawn out and predictable. The director did a good job with a false scare early in the movie with using the attacker as the camera peering up to a little girl only to realize that it was her brother sneaking up on her with a rubber snake (though this may be a copy of the Jaws scene with the pranksters swimming with a a shark fin on to scare the people on the beach), we then get a long drawn out stalking of the King Cobra on the little boy. It would have worked much better to have the snake pop out of nowhere. -we end with an unresolved cliffhanger; Seth is still alive but likely no sequel

Final grade: 7 out of 10

Boring

[rivertam26 · 2/10 · 1 April 2020]

It's Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita of the Karate Kid) vs. A giant snake. I wish it was as awesome as it sounds. Instead it's a run of the mill killer snake flick with clumpy but appreciated practical effects and a whole bunch of nothing. Most of the deaths happen off screen and the action is kept to a minimum. I wish I could say there was even one thing engaging about this mess but sadly it's just a bore.

1/5

The saving grace is in the ending...

[steve-545 · 17 August 1999]

What makes KING COBRA a step above your typical direct to video B horror film? Well, (I hate to say it)the ending is downright thrilling.....not giving away any details but the confrontation between Pat Morita's herpetologist/snake wrangler character and the giant cross-breeded snake is a great showdown...leading to the main characters (local policewoman and doctor who happen to be dating)last ditch effort to destroy the snake. Do not rent this film expecting JAWS. However, every now and then a subpar film rolls along teetering between a * and ** rating until the last half hour pushes into a respectable ** and a half star rating. KING COBRA is one such film. (then again the drop kick scene may very well be worth the price of rental...) Gore fans may be disappointed due to its PG-13 rating and its reliance on "appear from behind" scares...go into this accepting its low budget and you should be ok

Ssssssso ssssssstupid!

[bombersflyup · 1/10 · 19 September 2023]

In King Cobra, a mutated snake escapes from a laboratory and terrorizes the residents of a small California brewery town.

The film's pretty abysmal in every aspect, with bottom of the barrel acting, writing and all-round execution. Even to the main character wanting to leave this small town and his pretty law-enforcement girlfriend to move to the big city. The CGI snake looks awful and you don't even see the deaths, it just sneaks up on people and then they're dead, there's nothing in between. Stupidity's the cause for the snake's existence and stupidity reigns in this small town and the film's dull to boot.

Entertaining and that's it

[bhat962 · 5/10 · 4 May 2002]

I was looking forward to seeing another "Anaconda" and what I got was instead was a laugh out of it. This movie was probably the worst horror movie I have ever seen. Reason I say this, is not because it was poorly directed or made, but because of Pat Morita's entrance into the movie. Not only did he come in after a great hour of the movie, but he came in with his jokes and his knowledge on snakes. Honestly, I don't think the movie needed a snake guy to help out, I'm pretty sure the Doctor, which was played by Scott Hillenbrand (the director, also), would know what was poisonous and what was not. I think any movie, regardless of the genre, wants to make someone their leading man in the credits like this movie did with Morita, they should atleast put him in more than 30 minutes of the movie. Nonetheless, this movie was still entertaining, not scary, but entertaining. You even get a good laugh at the end that makes you feel like you actually didn't waste the 93 minutes of watching the movie.

Managed to watch all of it!

[benno_dale · 2/10 · 4 February 2002]

This film is bad, but I did have to watch it all just to see what it was like. The acting was atrocious and as for Mr Myagi (Karate Kid) making a cameo, that was ridiculous. All you saw was shots from the snakes point of view which so obviously just a man walking through the forest with a camera! Why oh why, is there so many crappy monster films about nowadays? EG:-Bug Buster, Bats, Anaconda, Monster!, They Nest and this dire heap of s***. How can the directors/actors sleep at night knowing they've made such a shockingly poor movie? If you have to watch a good monster flick, DON'T choose this! I wasted 90 minutes of my life watching this pile of turd. Hope this has been warning enough for you. Now go and rent a decent movie.

Sssssssssssucks!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 15 October 2005]

To start off with a little bit of good news... "King Cobra" is definitely better than all its fellow, recent creature-features handling about ridiculously big snakes, like "Python", "New Alcatraz" (a.k.a "Boa") and even the box-office hit "Anaconda". The special effects and the animatronic snake look really good here and the Hillenbrand brothers have at least have some directing skills. Still, all this can't hide the fact that "King Cobra" is an overall lame flick and, moreover, as unoriginal as humanly possible. As usual, the story opens with obnoxious scientists performing experiments – for no particular reason – with the world's most dangerous species of snakes. The laboratory goes boom and a humongous cobra escapes towards a little redneck-town where it starts to have the locals for lunch. Remarkble, however, is that this seems to take place only two years after the lab-explosion. Supposedly the 40 foot long snake just hijacked around unnoticed for that whole period... Many people turn up dead and their corpses filled with venom in the beer town of Fillmore but, in the good tradition of Spielberg's "Jaws", the local authorities initially refuse to accept the problem, as this would result in an economic disaster.

Granted, some sequences surely have tension and an effective build-up, but there never are real surprises or shocking moments. The Hillenbrand brothers also sometimes attempt to bring more depth into their script but this never properly leads anywhere. There's the bizarre sequence, for example, where professional the snake-hunter (Pat Morita) prevents someone else from killing the snake when he has the chance. Does he insist on killing it himself? Does he wish to keep it alive? Does it have to be killed using a special method? I do admit the dumb bunch of hunters made me chuckle and I stupidly loved the unsubtle Jaws-reference ("We're gonna need bigger guns..."). "King Cobra" is a generally incoherent film with more plot-holes than a teabag and unfortunately only a couple of good moments. Creature-Features are a terrific sub-genre in horror, but giant-snake films rarely ever work...except for the 1982 "Venom", maybe...

Anaconda may be bad, but this is worse.

[dgs · 4/10 · 10 August 1999]

Low-budget horror with giant, genetically altered/accidentally mutated king cobra/rattlesnake named Seth who munch on a bunch of rednecks and horny teenagers. There are some scares, a nice soundtrack reminiscent to Jaws and the Choidio Brothers FX looks real good, but it looks fake anyway. Weak, predictable and laugh-inducing direct-to-video flick has an embarrassing cameo by Erik Estrada as the town homosexual snapping his finger in the air. Lousy cast that you would enjoy seeing them as snake dinner and the only guy you'll care for (if not enough) is Pat Morita.

Slithering menace terrorizes a small town.

[michaelRokeefe · 2/10 · 13 August 2001]

This is a very sad excuse for a horror film. Flimsy story, lousy cast and just plain bad. It is hard to find anything good about this flick. Well, Pat Morita and Hoyt Axton are the life of the cast...if that means much. Weak, low budget and just about forgettable. This is bad enough to bring about laughter.

A mutated king cobra, with a rattle no less, escapes a lab and causes problems for a small town trying to be more than a stain on the map by having a "Brewfest". Also in this ill fated project are co-writer/director Scott Hillenbrand, Casey Fallo and a very weird cameo by Erik Estrada. Mr. Estrada probably went into hiding after doing this.

If you are a fan of low, low budget movies...this is for you.

Mr. Miyagi as Marlon Perkins???

[Carycomic · 2/10 · 8 January 2005]

It's true. Pat Morita ("Happy Days;" the "Karate Kid" series) plays a herpetologist* recruited to help capture a genetically-engineered reptile. Why genetically engineered? Well, Joseph Ruskin plays a biochemist trying to find a neurochemical cure for hyperviolent aggression (like that exhibited by serial killers, I guess).

But, he can't experiment on humans, right off the bat. And, normal wild animals aren't aggressive enough (unless, of course, you cruelly provoke them). So, he creates Seth. And, here is where the zoological accuracy goes out the window even worse than it did in "Anacondas!" The Eastern diamondback is a genuine species of rattler . BUT, THERE IS NO SUCH SPECIES AS THE African KING COBRA!!

Oh, the scientific name (Haemachates haemachatus) was pronounced, correctly. That belongs to a _very_ aggressive species of South African spitting cobra known as the "ringhals." The proper scientific name for king cobras, however, is Naja hannah.

AND, THEY ARE NATIVE TO SOUTHEAST ASIA!

So, was Seth's biological daddy a gene-spliced hybrid, himself?

Perhaps. In any case, before you become a professional snake handler (like Dr. Hashimoto), maybe you should take out a life insurance policy with Mutual of Omaha.

*Herpetologists, btw, study reptiles _and_ amphibians, in general. A zoologist who specializes only in snakes is technically an ophiologist. "Here endeth the lesson." (Sean Connery, "The Untouchables")

Incredibly fun snake movie

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 5 June 2015]

After a series of snake attacks, small town doctors find that the snake is an escaped test subject which has the genetics of a cobra and a rattlesnake forcing them to find and destroy the deadly creature before it goes through the town's populace.

This was a lot better than expected. One of its best features is the fact that the film moves along at a fast pace, never hitting a lull or a dull spot and there's plenty of stuff going on here to keep it interesting. It starts off nicely as the opening action in the lab with the loosened snake is great as it stalks the others through the flaming ruins, the building suspense of the experiment going out-of-control and the chaos and panic works really well while other action scenes are just as good. There's a lot to really enjoy about the attack in the home, which is wonderfully suspenseful and really interesting from the snake POV used to sneak up on the victim to its rather impressive revelation, where the snake appears as a silhouette against the just-turned-off TV screen, the realization dawns and the attack begins. The fact that the snake's POV is used often is another good one for the film, since it's an actually fun technique that manages to get some really tense moments when it's stalking it's victims, and as there's a lot of really good stalking scenes throughout this allows for a couple of nice scenes. The final encounter in the woods is all-out fun with logical methods of dealing with the creature, a lot of really nice strikes and the really clever manner of catching the creature is one of the best parts of the film. The cobra look is also really good, as there's prosthetics used in place of CGI, the addition of the menacing and unique hood is another nice touch and gives it a really impressive look that gives off the appearance that it's actually there for its positive points that hold this one up enough against the flaws. The most obvious one is the rating, as the fact that this one is a PG-13 film does stand out in here. The kills are either so quick as to be hardly imaginable or simply bloodless as they're really just bites and have no real jolt to them. Some diversity in the kills as well would've helped this one immensely as a difference in the amount of bloodshed would've gone a long way with this one. The other flaw in this one is that there's an extreme over- reliance on lame jump gags, as stuff like the friendly-POV that scares an innocent victim, the screeching cat and the off-screen crashing noises are all used frequently and too ill-effect, making for some aggravating viewing at times. Otherwise, there's a lot to really like about this one.

Rated PG-13: Violence and Language.

grade A cheeseball horror

[Bringthelynx · 6/10 · 27 December 2000]

If you rent or buy this movie make sure you can laugh at the bad acting,cheesy props and sheer stupidity.I like cheap B movies so this one didn't let me down one bit.But don't get this movie if you want to be scared or are expecting a good movie.

Every mistake in the book!

[saallis · 1/10 · 23 August 2000]

The brothers tried and tried, bud could just not do it. I can point to 23 different mistakes in this movie. One example: Instead of closing the tube by running 10 feet to the end of it, they run all the way to a tree 60 feet of. And the great kick from our hero, a flying kick right in the face at the end of the movie... And theres the plot; a snake, a laboratory, explosives, genmanipulations, >King Cobra.. (Heard absolutly EVERYTHING before)

Worst film I have ever seen. (Even worse than Komodo)