Eyes Of The Serpent

In a voice-over prologue, a breathless narrator tells of a legendary struggle for magical twin swords; prominent jewels affixed to their hilts represented the eyes of the serpent that guarded the gates of paradise. To control the swords, together with some sacred scrolls, was to harness absolute power. When the king who kept these sacred artifacts died, his sisters battled for possession, and evil Corva (Lenore Andriel) banished good sister Neema (Lisa Toothman). As the narrative proper begins, Corva controls both swords and is holding her niece Fiona (Diane Frank) hostage until her wise men can crack the scrolls. But Fiona escapes, and an itinerant swordsman and affable beefcake, Galen (Tom Schultz), comes to her rescue. They soon join Neema and her happy band to reclaim their birthright. Fiona and Galen make sparks straight away, but soon enough Neema is making her own desires known; Galen, however, senses that a lust for power lurks behind her populist rhetoric. Meanwhile, when Corva's house wizard determines that the scrolls won't work without a nefarious ritual requiring royal blood, she sacrifices her own daughter Raven without a second thought. When the two sisters face each other for a final showdown, they manage to kill each other off, leaving the far fairer Fiona to rule by default, with Galen at her side.

With an incomprehensible plot spot-welded onto the proceedings via desperate voice-over narration, costumes reminiscent of a primary school pageant, and an ineffectual cast apparently culled from soap opera farm teams, automotive calendars, and "Buns of Steel" videos, EYES OF THE SERPENT makes the average Charles Band schlockfest look like INTOLERANCE. Possibly pseudonymous director Ricardo Jacques Gale, who helmed the equally inept ALIEN INTRUDER, is no budding Ed Wood, however--there's no sense of simple-minded conviction here, only smirking, self-conscious wretchedness. (Violence, nudity, sexual situations.) leave a comment