Oh my God, this is an Eastern exploitation treasure that is, without a doubt, the greatest killer snake film ever! After a nest of slithering nightmares (what else can you call them?) are found on a construction site, the developer uses earth moving equipment to squash them dead. Fortunately for us, the viewers, there are lots more snakes where this lot came from, so once construction gets seriously underway on the site, the serpentine scaremongers get their revenge in the bloodiest, nastiest way. But unlike recent snake entries such as "Snakes on a Plane" and "Anaconda", the snakes used in this movie are real, and there are thousands of them, literally! This also means that when the humans start fighting back against the snakes, real snakes get butchered, burned, sliced open, eaten and chopped in gruesome, graphic close-ups. As a confirmed animal lover, I found these sequences fascinating but very hard to stomach. I felt sorry for the great snake actors who had no idea of the fates awaiting them at the end of the movie. This insane, furious, savage flick is part Mondo, part Horror film. There is even an extended sequence in which half a dozen mongooses battle it out with dozens of angry, p*ssed-off snakes in an enclosure. It was like watching a lost scene from "Shocking Asia". The drama between the snake action is a little slow, so it's a fast-forward job on second and subsequent viewings. You will marvel at a snake master fighting a giant snake kung fu-style and you will recognize the music scores stolen from "Maniac" (Jay Chataway) and "Dawn of the Dead" (Goblin). I like the Chinese "Killer Snakes" and I've even liked American snake flicks such as "Stanley" and "Sssssss", but "Calamity of Snakes" truly takes the snake cake as far as snake flicks go.

A luxury apartment complex is being constructed,unfortunately the team discovers a huge nest of hundreds of snakes on the site.The boss refuses to delay the construction just because of the snakes and orders them all to be exterminated despite being warned by his wife and her nightmares of the situation.Not all the snakes end up getting killed and the survivors seek revenge on the construction workers.It isn't long before a giant boa leads the rest of the thousands of snakes inside the building to kill all the new inhabitants."Calamity of Snakes" by William Chang has to be seen to be believed.Literally hundreds of live snakes are butchered during the film.The climax certainly involves hundreds of snakes and wholesale slaughter of the animals.Snakes are chopped to pieces,burned alive,killed with shovels and gutted.So if you are an animal lover skip this film.However if you enjoy watching outrageous Asian horror films give it a look.

Cobra crushing, python pounding, boa bashing, mamba mashing, and all round general asp annihilation: Calamity of Snakes' catalogue of real-life cruelty to the lowly serpent is simply quite staggering, and makes this early 80s example of Hong Kong snakesploitation unmissable for fans of the downright weird and absurd (although definitely not one for animal lovers).

Featuring more scaly skin than Judith Chalmers in a hall of mirrors, William Chang's unbelievably silly snake-snuff movie sees thousands of the wriggly critters invade an exclusive high-rise apartment block seeking revenge for the wholesale slaughter of their pals during the construction of the building. As the hissing horde slithers and slides from room to room to attack the residents, a group of highly trained reptile exterminators (in fetching silver overalls and matching helmets) race to the rescue, armed with dry ice and flame throwers. But will even they be able to handle the ferocious monster boa that leads the reptilian rampage?

Totally outrageous from start to finish, with endless animal violence (no budget for fancy animatronics in this one!),'crazy' Hong Kong comedy (speeded up footage ala Benny Hill, a fat woman who eats like a pig, and an old bloke whose hair stands on end),snake-fu, and dreadful disco dancing, Calamity of Snakes is one of those rare treats that makes hunting for obscure movies worthwhile. Apart from a few talkative scenes which do slow down the action a little, this is pure trash entertainment.