Curse II: The Bite (1989) User Reviews

The Bite

[Stevieboy666 · 6/10 · 21 September 2019]

UK title - The Bite. A young couple driving across the American Southwest are warned by a gasoline attendant not to take a short cut through a former military testing ground. Naturally they ignore hit advice and the guy ends up getting bitten by a snake. Over the course of the movie he slowly mutates into a gross half man half snake creature. The acting is pretty good and there are some interesting characters but at the end of the day The Bite is all about special effects. Screaming Mad George provided them here, and does a great job. However, most of these come near the end of the film, it is a bit of a slow burn until then. I watched this on VHS, it is a classic example of great sleeve artwork, which entices the viewing to watch the movie, but ultimately the end result is not quite so great. Does have a sufficient amount of Bite though to make it worthwhile.

Snakes on the road, in the car, in your flesh and genes Snakes everywhere!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 19 June 2008]

The Curse part two?? The only thing this modest 80's horror production is cursed with is the burden of getting linked to another and entirely unrelated B-movie that just happens to be produced by the same greedy Italian (Ovidio G. Assonitis). "The Curse", a.k.a. "The Farm", is a poorly made and incredibly cheesy movie about a meteorite crash-landing on a farmland and subsequently mutating the crops and the inhabitants. It's a personal guilty pleasure of mine, but the majority of horror fans – clearly with a better taste in movies than me – dislike it and therefore are likely to avoid "The Bite" based of their prejudices. Not that this movie is an absolute must-see or anything, but it's simply unfair to promote something as a sequel when it tried to be original. No meteorites or infected crops in sight here, as "The Bite" revolves on genetically altered snakes and the disastrous effects their bite cause. Trying to reach Albuquerque via a short cut, hunky Clark and his cute girlfriend Lisa pass through an abandoned military zone in the middle of the desert. Not entirely abandoned, however, since the place is full of virulent and – more importantly – genetically altered snakes. One of the little buggers slithers into the jeep and sees its opportunity to bite Clark in the arm. From that moment on, "The Bite" becomes an absurd and laughable 80's cheesefest. Clark's arm gradually mutates into a ravenous snake-monster and the rest of his mind and body goes through some vast transformations as well. The film is somewhat oddly structured and contains a couple of twists with an extremely high "WTF"-level. For example, the script puts a lot of effort into a sub plot about an amateur medic (with a gigantic nose) chasing the young couple because he gave Clark a wrong antidote and fears a lawsuit. The guy even leads a communication network with deranged truckers! Then there's also a really peculiar twist involving a family of exaggeratedly religious freaks near the end. Weird… and quite boring often, too! Oh well, don't worry too much about the oddness, because the obvious elements to enjoy here are "Screaming" Mad George's engrossing special effects and the enchanting appearance of 80's beauty Jill Schoelen. Screaming Georgie's snakes are awesome and, even though the monstrous effects are not always convincing, this certainly isn't a film I would recommend to people with a phobia for slithering animals! Loads of icky stuff crawling out of people's mouths' and all, you know! The climax is completely unhinged. It looks and feels as if the producers had some extra money left and offered Screaming Mad George the opportunity to experiment and go really berserk with his special type of repulsive art.

Somewhat Disturbing Late 80s Snake Horror With Product Placement by Miller Lite & 7-Up

[Steve_Nyland · 4/10 · 24 September 2006]

This movie gave me a nightmare that was plugged into my subconscious by the film's show-stopper climactic scene where the young "hero" at the center of the movie starts spewing live snakes out of his gullet while trying to crawl out of a drain pipe. In my nightmare I was working as some sort of a janitor in a food service establishment (scary already) and had to clean up a bathroom where a bunch of people had vomited after eating plates of teeming little snakes. It was more of a gross-out nightmare than one that was frightening so waking up and putting it behind me was easy, though it did take me a while to figure out where the idea of people vomiting snakes had come from. Then I remembered CURSE II: THE BITE, which is kind of an OK idea I guess, executed in a way that was sort of imaginative at times. It was nice seeing Jamie Farr wearing pants on my TV set for a change, lead actress Jill Schoelen was enjoyable and looked good in her underpants, Bo Svenson seemed to enjoy playing a beer swilling Southwestern sheriff walking a fine line between arrogant corruption and duty, there are some effective shock sequences (my favorite was the one where a woman doctor looses her lower jaw: OUCH THAT'S GOTTA HURT) and the film had a good sense of it's location in the Southwestern US and it's world of interstate highways, overpasses, cowboy bars and dusty back lots. It is a serviceable time-killer with some amusing special effects as the schnook in the lead transmogrifies into a gigantic fake looking snake, and may have been a dream come true for it's special effects technicians who looked like they got some milage out of material that otherwise would have been pretty routine. With plenty of Miller Lite, Meister Brau and 7-Up for all.

So the snake puking stuff is effective & evocative enough to trigger a nightmare, but the film did have one sequence that stopped the fun cold. I've been studying Snake Horror as a horror movie idiom for a while and one of the aspects about it is the very nature of exploitation at the heart & soul of the movies in question. Snakes do not attack, hunt or otherwise interact with people unless humans disturb them. Snakes also have an inescapable social function as sexual metaphors. There is of course the Adam & Eve connotations with the serpent as an embodiment of temptation or sin, tempting humans to revel in their natural tendency to have sex. Snakes are also the ultimate phallic symbol, being legless animals who's heads have a somewhat suggestive shape. It is difficult to use a snake in a movie -- especially a horror movie, since horror movies are sex movies in disguise -- and not deal with the sexual subtexts. This one does in a subtle but somewhat nauseating manner by suggesting that one of them crawled through Ms. Schoelen's unmentionables and deposited a glop of viscous green goop. Like, eww. She is also fresh out of the shower, still wet and wrapped in nary but a towel when the scene unfolds, reinforcing the perverse subtext of the scene with the snake a representation of the dark side of deviant human sexuality.

All well and fine, but the images that stopped the fun cold happen before that. First, during a road trip break scene the two leads pull over, the young lady retires behind a bush for a pit stop, and the schnook she is with has to use a rifle to blow away some kind of a snake that creeps up behind her. Telling the young lass to simply get up and walk away wouldn't make for a very effective horror scene and sadly it appears that the producers opted to have a technician either shoot or otherwise blow away an actual live specimen, an unfortunate but all-too common occurrence in the history of horror films. Nobody thought twice about killing a snake since they are legless squirmy inhuman creatures: Humans like things that have 2 or 4 legs and walk about while standing up. But the real problem comes in the following scene -- inexplicably described as "hilarious" by a reviewer somewhere else -- when the two leads run over what appeared to be hundreds of actual living snakes strewn about on a stretch of road.

I watched the scene in shock: Is this for real? If so it is one of the most barbaric sequences of animal cruelty yet unleashed, and following the links for producer/director Frederico Prosperi will lead one to a film called SAVAGE BEASTS, a 1978 "Nature Strikes Back" movie about zoo animals freaking out after PCP contaminates their drinking water, which used staged actual on-camera animal killings. Such behavior is beyond stupid, it is thoughtless, and a quality that many Italian made or produced films from the period have in common. Everyone knows about CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and how inhuman it's animal killings are, how come nobody has protested CURSE II yet? I am more offended by how utterly stupid one would have to be to think it acceptable film-making, and the idea that people would not only be entertained by such but find it "hilarious". I have friends that keep snakes as pets & love them like they were kittens, I would not want any of them to see this movie because of that one sequence and am re-thinking my fascination with the idiom as a result of having seen it. If you have ever wondered why the movie is unavailable I would point to that as the prime reason why.

4/10: Stick to the dark sexuality next time, at least the snake might get something out of it also.

What strange power made his arm into snake, made him puke snakes?

[Fella_shibby · 3/10 · 2 September 2021]

This is never explained but i borrowed that line partially from the movie The Reptile (1966).

Also can someone tell me what was the deal with the gas station attendant n his hidden creature?

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs n didn't enjoy it then. In fact, i still find part one better.

This one is very boring.

The first kill happens around the 55th min n that too nothing scary or gory bah it. The effects are very lousy and add to it the atrocious editing where u can't make out wots going on.

While the first part was based on Color Out Of Space, this one doesn't have anything to do with the first part or the book.

The lead female character is so mean that she leaves the small girl all alone in the house knowing that the girl's parents are killed by her boyfriend's hand cum snake.

In Stepfather, Jill Schoelen was 24 but she played a 16 year old in it and her nudity was a put off n uncalled for.

But here in Curse 2 we dont get to see her nude inspite of an offscreen sex scene n a lousy shower scene.

The plot - A man is bitten by a snake and somehow his bitten hand undergoes transformation into a hideous snake monster, which kills everyone who comes closer to him. The man tries to run away from his girlfriend to protect her but the girlfriend pursuits him n puts herself in danger while the local sheriff, his deputies n the town's doctor (Pinocchio nose fella) wants to track and destroy the monster once and for all.

The movie has a lil gore but tension, suspense, atmosphere is totally missing.

Weak Italian horror production has no connection for original Curse film

[a_chinn · 3/10 · 17 September 2018]

Typically cheap Italian horror production that cashes in on the success of another horror film. This "sequel" bears no connection to the original "Curse" film and is instead a story about a man bitten by a radioactive snake who then spawns killer snake-like creatures. That premiss might have been a campy good time, but this film is a boring slog. Jill Schoelen, J. Eddie Peck, and Jamie Farr provide a few familiar faces on screen, along with Bo Svenson as the Sheriff and Sydney Lassick (Cheswick from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest") in smaller roles. Only watch this film if you're in the mood for a bad old school horror film (which I'll admit that I sometimes am).

hits and miss of a B horror movie

[Sburt4-1 · 4/10 · 3 October 2007]

I have always been a big fan of Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather). When I found out she was in this film I had to rent it. It's not the best film. But I didn't think it was the worse either.

some of the things that didn't work for me included the cheesy music that came on when ever there was an attack and some of the scenes could have been shot a little better. The film tends to drag.

Highlights in the film were the lovely Jill Schoelen as Lisa. I enjoyed seeing her sing and play the guitar. She is decent with the role of Lisa. J. Eddie Peck is easy on the eyes as Clark. There is some decent gore considering the low budget. The ending is really good. It's worth a look for the special effects or anyone who likes Jill Schoelen.

Surprisingly good creature feature

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 10 September 2018]

Traveling to California together, young lovers are warned away from going through a restricted area to take a shortcut, but when he gets bitten they discover that it was a mutated snake which was responsible and begins to mutate into a deadly creature from his hand forcing them to help him.

As far as cheesy 80s creature features go, this one isn't that bad. The biggest aspect of this one is the really abundant cheese provided here from all sorts of factors. This comes from a variety of features, including the fact that the monster's origins are goofy enough and far too much for most to take seriously which is what's asked here, as well as the few early confrontations showing him being affected by the change as they go about their journey. For the fans, though, the slimy prosthetics are prime cheesy creations and have the goods to back it up, as this is nowhere more obvious than during the two transformation scenes which come off great. Both are really fun scenes and really go all out in providing some great work as the snake comes off really well and is aided by the fact that both occur during the big action scenes, another factor in helping them get over in the film. Both scenes, the house massacre as well as the final confrontation at the end, feature these as the centerpiece and are therefore full of other facets that make them fun. The body count is also upped slightly compared to the past, and there's some good kills in here as a result of some strong gore throughout here. The last big factor is the film's fast-paced finale, which is simply loads of fun from the brutal massacre at the house, the chase to the car and the ensuing fight that leads into the construction zone and the final confrontation there is all meshed together into a spectacular series of events that leave a fantastic lasting impression. These here are the film's good points. This one here isn't that bad, except for the cheese being the biggest factor. That is a huge turnoff and is perhaps the biggest flaw here. The make-up on the snake transformation is perhaps the most glaring, as there's plenty of obvious rubber parts used especially once the transformation begins. The snake is rarely shown and when the change happens there's a little more seen but it's still a really hard to tell what it is since the few times it is the plasticity of the face is so obvious that there's no way around how bad it looks. The snake-head coming out of the hand whipping and thrashing about makes for unbridled laughter more often than not when it comes on-screen as the concept of what's going on really sells that. It's not so much the fact that what's going on looks cheesy, but also the fact that this one has a really easy time discerning the fake-ness of the creature in its scenes. There's even a few other problematic scenes, including the one in the bathroom where he cuts his hand off in the hopes of ending the curse. That leads to a scene which looked like it was intended for suspense but only comes off as goofy. The lame insurance salesman following everything is rarely better, and the scenes here are pretty bad. As it stands, though, the cheesiness is the main thing keeping it down.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and a mild sex scene.

Not really a sequel

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 15 June 2021]

The only thing better than a sequel is one that's in name only. That's exactly what The Curse II: The Bite is all about. It's really a movie called The Bite, which was directed by Fred Goodwin, who is really Frederico Prosperi, whose only other credit is producing the nature on the loose movie The Wild Beasts.

The film came to be after the success of The Curse. Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis and his company TriHoof Investments started making this film and another called The Train, which also became an in-name-only sequel as well called Beyond the Door III (AKA Amok Train).

Our heroes are young lovers Clark (J. Eddie Peck, the star of Lambada) and Lisa (Jill Schoelen, who is one of my favorite unheralded scream queens with roles in The Stepfather, Cutting Class, The Phantom of the Opera, Popcorn, When a Stranger Calls Back and Chiller) whose cross-country trip has taken them right past an abandoned nuclear test site crawling with mutant snakes. Clark gets bit and starts to slowly mutate into a snake himself.

Luckily, Lisa has some help from a sheriff (Bo Svenson) and Harry Morton (Jamie Farr) a traveling salesman who is also a doctor of sorts. He tries to treat the snakebite and uses the wrong medication, which pushes the mutation further as he furtively seeks the couple out to save them as much as he's trying to save himself from a malpractice lawsuit. Why is a travelling salesman also a doctor? That's just how the world of this movie works.

Also, if you ever wanted to see a movie where Jamie Farr has conjugal relations with trucker women, come on down to Curse II: The Bite!

There are some great Screaming Mad George effects in this, as well as an astounding scene where Clark tries to use his hand in a Biblical manner on Lisa. His mutated snake hand. Man, I was screaming at the television! Stick with this movie because while it starts off slow, but it gets ooey, gooey and great by the end. And by great, the kind of great when Italian filmmakers are let loose in America. You know what I'm talking about.

This worked out so well that a movie called Panga became Curse III: Blood Sacrifice and Catacombs was retitled Curse IV: The Ultimate Sacrifice.

Could have been a lot better, but a fun watch in spite of the many problems

[The_Void · 7/10 · 27 November 2006]

Back when I was a boy, my dad used to go to the 'video shop' to rent a film for the family to watch. My dad had a talent for choosing the worst films in the shop, but when he came home with 'The Bite' one night; I seem to remember thoroughly enjoying it. I've revisited a number of favourites from my childhood since becoming a 'serious' film fan, and have mostly been disappointed; but with this film, I agree with my childhood self that it's an enjoyable and fun little flick. I'm not sure where the 'Curse II' prefix comes from - I've not seen the original Curse, and even if this is a sequel, it still nicely stands on its own. I do, however, suspect that the prefix is a cash-in - and from now on I'll refer to this film as 'The Bite'. The plot focuses on a young couple; Clark and Lisa, who are driving across the desert for some reason. After breaking down, Clark's bad luck continues when he's bitten by a snake - and continues further when the snake turns out to be radioactive and the hand he was bitten starts to become a snake itself! On his tail are a salesman/wannabe doctor and the county sheriff.

This film has two main problems when it comes to the plot. First of all, it takes far too long to get going; I have no problem with build-up, but this film verges on being boring too often, and the build-up fails to generate any interesting characters...so it feels rather pointless. Secondly, the plot base had a lot more to offer than what we got. I guess the film took influence from Cronenberg's masterpiece 'The Fly', as it features similar themes; but the idea is never really explored, and while things such as the dog at the start get the imagination going, it's all very mundane for the most part. The acting isn't too bad, although J. Eddie Peck was miscast in the lead role. The Stepfather's Jill Schoelen is a pleasure to watch, while the likes of Jamie Farr and Bo Svenson do well in support. The gore isn't too bad either, and there are some suitably nasty scenes throughout the film. The ending is a highlight as it features the film's best stint in terms of atmosphere, and also gives a suitable climax to a macabre little tale. Overall, this is far from perfect; but despite its flaws, The Bite is still worth seeing and I recommend it to my fellow trash fans.

Snake-Armed And Dangerous...

[azathothpwiggins · 24 August 2020]

In CURSE II: THE BITE, Lisa and Clark (Jill Schoelen and J. Eddie Peck) just happen to be tooling along through a government testing site in the desert. Shockingly, there are rattlesnakes about. Even more shockingly, said serpents are radioactive! Of course, Clark is quickly bitten by one, which causes his hand to mutate.

As is the common result of radiated snakebites, Clark's arm turns into a murderous snake monster. The rest of Clark joins in on the ensuing mayhem.

This movie is a gore-drenched, semi-classic of utter absurdity. It exists in a universe where Jamie "Klinger" Farr is a gun-toting hero. Bo Svenson co-stars as the angry sheriff. Fans of Ms. Schoelen will enjoy her here, since her cuteness knows no bounds. Fans of Director Frederico Prosperi (aka: Fred Goodwin) need look no further, since this is his first and last directorial effort...

Boring.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 3/10 · 17 March 2004]

Clark(J.Eddie Peck)turns into a snake monster after he's bitten by a mutated desert snake.He starts killing various people...Federico Prosperi's "Curse 2:The Bite" is pretty lame.The only reason to watch it are pretty good special effects by Screaming Mad George.The climatic scene where Clark pukes all different sizes and breeds of snakes is fairly gross.There is also a little bit of gore,but the atmosphere of dread and fear is completely absent.The film quickly becomes tedious and boring,so fans of Italian horror will be disappointed.The acting is so-so and the dialogue is absolutely terrible.Overall,I'd only recommend this film for fans of killer snakes movies.My rating:3 out of 10.

Gross, creepy and underrated

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 25 May 2006]

A sterling example of how a threadbare and unpromising premise can be made genuinely creepy and effective thanks to a proficient execution. Granted, the story ain't much: Young fellow Clark (affable J. Eddie Peck) and his sweet girlfriend Lisa (a winning performance by late 80's flash-in-the-pan scream queen cutie Jill Schoelen of "The Stepfather" fame) are driving their jeep across the parched, desolate Arizona desert. The pair take an ill-advised detour off the main road and discover an old abandoned nuclear test site. Things turn sour when one of the jeep tires goes flat. Things get worse when Clark gets bitten by a radioactive snake. And, naturally, things become all the more hairy and freaky when Clark's bitten arm starts to mutate into a foul, icky, highly deadly and disgusting snake monster! As I said before, the hackneyed plot leaves plenty to be desired. However, with this supremely yucky and revolting horror movie gross-out splatterfest it's not the story that counts; it's Screaming Mad George's astonishingly vile and revolting make-up f/x and Federico Prosperi's commendably able direction which really make the difference here. Among the picture's sickening highlights are a woman's jaw being torn off, a man's heart being yanked out of his throat, and Peck vomiting forth dozens of steaming slithery snakes. The acting is uniformly tops as well: Peck and Schoelen are credible and likable leads, with solid support from Bo Svenson as a mean, intimidating jerk sheriff, Jamie Farr as a friendly, helpful salesman, "Midnight Ride" 's Savina Gersak as a kind, pious Baptist lady, Sydney Lassick as a meek, squeamish motel clerk, and "Parasite" 's Al Fann as a belligerent gas station attendant. Roberto D'Ettorre Piazoli's crisp, fluid cinematography, the eerily forbidding atmosphere, Carlo Maria Cordio's spare, shivery score, the superbly spooky use of arid, swelteringly hot and sticky New Mexico locations, and the spectacularly grotesque and hence immensely upsetting bummer ending further enhance the overall flesh-crawling uneasiness of this harrowingly unpleasant and unnerving fright film surprise.

It's such a mess, but it's fun

[Terrorantula · 6/10 · 16 April 2020]

Harry and flo are really the stars of this movie... Lisa is just so terrible, it's unfortunate she didn't die in an awesome and heroic way to redeem her. The ending is obviously where the budget went but it's as ill conceived as the rest of the movie. It's almost like the person that wrote this had never actually been around snakes and knew nothing about then..like why does his snake monster thing never bite like a snake or do anything else like snakes do? It's a hilarious disaster of plot holes, errors and gaffs. It gets a 1 on continuity and the main characters acting, but a 6 for being a hilarious movie you can make fun of

Curse II: This Bites

[DarthBob · 1/10 · 2 June 2003]

I can't believe this film has mustered up even 3.7 stars as this movie is not very good. It's only real highlights are an appearence by Sydney Lassick (known for his memorable role as "Charlie Cheswick" in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's

Nest") and Jamie Farr ("Klinger" from "M*A*S*H"). Note to Hollywood directors: If Sydney Lassick is your movie's ONLY highlight, you have a very serious problem.

The special effects are terrible and overcompensated for by being way more

gooey and graphic than they needed to be. I've seen episodes of "Perfect

Strangers" that were more suspensful. Seeing some guys gauze wrapped hand

turn slowly into a moistened rubber snake puppet is nowhere near as thrilling as when Cousin Larry almost missed his big job interview because lovable Balki

lost his car keys.

The film is topped off with 7 or 8 major product placement scenes and close to 14 1/2 hours of Jeep driving in the desert footage.

One final and interesting note: "Deputy Barney" is played by someone who later went on to play Jesus. I'll let you make up your own sarcastic comments.

Horrible Movie

[BloodTheTelepathicDog · 11 December 2004]

I rented this once because Jill Schoelen is all kinds of fine, and I enjoyed the atmosphere of The Curse with Wil Wheaton. But this film, which is a sequel in name only, redefines terrible cinema.

This dude gets bitten by a snake and his hand turns into a snake head, yeah the plots that sophomoric. MASH's Jamie Farr spends the movie chasing after the guy and his less than loyal girlfriend(the tasty Jill Schoelen), but far too much time is given to Farr rather than building the main characters, and showing us the agony this dude is going through with a snake growing out of his arm.

This is completely stupid with absolutely nothing to be recommended. If you're a Jill Schoelen fan, stick with The Stepfather, if you enjoyed The Curse, don't expect a sequel, just terrible effects of a dude with a snake hand.

The Fly rip off

[trashgang · 4/10 · 2 October 2008]

As I watched this one I came beware of some mistakes within the first moments. Driving a 100 mile highway were no-one drives is okay but by giving a shot of the highway you see a car driving behind them!! And at a gas station the man says, you have to fill it up here 'cause there's nothing in again 100 miles but at the background you can see cars passing by. So low budget indeed. The idea could be good but your hand changing into a puppet snake makes it already a trash movie. Only the end has his moments with some nice gore moments. But the first hour it's all bla bla. Cutting away when the snake get's in people mouths isn't what we call a nice horrorflick. be honest, the gore is low budget and only a few seconds so I can't understand why they are calling this really full of gore. Anyway, the actors are believable, see it once and forget it, watch the fly instead, that contains real gorescenes

What curse?

[Aaron1375 · 4/10 · 7 February 2004]

I am surprised more people have not voted for this movie. It came on HBO a number of times back in the day. I caught there one night and decided to watch it. Nothing much really to it. I saw most of the first movie and have to say these two share very little in common except for the fact neither of them are really curses. Since when is getting bitten by a snake a curse? Just makes no sense. Actually this movie could be a sequel to the movie "SSSSSS" (yes, there is a movie by that title), because in this one as in that one there is the gradual transformation throughout the movie. Only here it is done a bit more graphically than it was in the other one. As it is though I did not care for it all that much. There just wasn't enough to it for my tastes. I am not a fan of the movies where someone is basically transforming throughout the whole movie. Though there are some interesting scenes that are worth checking out. The scene where the guy puts the moves on the girl is kind of sleazy, but good. Disturbing too, as later you find out what is beneath those bandages. The ending is somewhat good too, all in all though it may be worth checking out if you ever see it; I just wouldn't put much effort into finding it.

JEER - (3 stars out of 10)

[BJG-Reviews · 3/10 · 31 August 2020]

The stage curtains open ...

I was pleasantly surprised with the first movie in this franchise. Even though it wasn't anything special, it was still fun to watch. I went into this 2nd installment hoping that lightning would strike twice, but I was instead treated to one of the strangest, weirdest piece of horror movie making I think I've ever seen, next to maybe "Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation" (which left me unsettled in the worst way).

Our story picks up with a young couple driving the highway, making their way through the southwest, on their way to Albuquerque. When they decide to take an ill-advised shortcut through the Yellow Sands desert, which happens to be chock-full of radiated snakes, they pick up an unwelcome passenger (one such snake) and unknowingly bring it with them to the nearest motel where they are staying. While unloading their overnight things, the snake bites the hand of the young man and the real mayhem begins - taking us down a very perilous road into darkness, despair, and death.

This one started out pretty good, with great promise of a solid 80's horror flick. As things progressively got worse for our young protagonists, so did the movie. It really followed no line of logic, the acting was abysmal, and the premise completely distorted. This movie was just, well ... weird. And without giving anything away, I will say that it did offer up some visuals that made me recoil in horror - not because it was well made, but because it was all so preposterous and terribly executed. The final scene was fairly memorable, though not enough to salvage this wreckage of a movie.

I cannot recommend this one. It gets marks for originality, since I can't remember seeing anything like it, and I've always been a fan of Jill Schoelen. Overall though, this movie is a hot mess, overspilling with one repulsive scene after another. Why Jamie Farr picked this atrocity to cast as his horror film of choice is beyond me. This one is only a meager 3 stars out of 10.

It's not the venom that will kill you.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 6 September 2008]

As a standalone goes, this isn't bad and is miles ahead of its terribly lame unrelated second sequel 'Curse III: Blood Sacrifice (1991)'. Still even here, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with the final outcome. What begins promising and ends so (mainly centring on Screaming Mad George's tremendously vivid and killer first-rate special effects) has too much time on its hands when it should be more exciting than it actually is with an odd, colourful assemble of sub-plots hanging off its already creative premise. The problem is it seems to want to only the scrape the surface with minimal details, than delving in deep with any sort of lasting imprint and ends on a whimper. So the comparisons to Cronenberg's cerebral remake of 'The Fly' seemed to be unjustified, with only the transformation effects ringing true. Leaving it as a simple, taut and silly b-grade cautionary on-the-road feature. Although expect something dreary, downbeat and utterly horrifying. Likable leads Jill Schoelen (who's always a complete delight) and J. Eddie Peck (the poor guy goes through the slivering changes) make the trip an easy ride. There's fun support in the shape Jamie Farr, Bo Svenson, Sydney Lassick and Savina Gersak. The atmosphere might be lacking (even though the well presented photography frames the blistering sand bowl locations to good effect), but it has a real nasty streak abound (the plastered shocks and unnerving deaths) and the macabre effects are grotesque and leave sickening punch in the guts. It looks like they were trying to blow you away, and it mostly does good at that. I guess we know what the main selling point is here.

Terrible

[gianmarcoronconi · 1/10 · 13 December 2023]

This is not a real review, it should be understood more as a collection of impressions on the film.

In my opinion the screenwriters who wrote this terrible film weren't too in themselves because in my opinion to conceive such a bad and confusing plot you really have to choose to suck, choose it deliberately because otherwise the rubbish that came out won't be explained. One might think, apart from the plot, the rest will be decent but no, the rest is also terrible, the acting is something shameful and everything is exaggeratedly dark with a type of direction that on many occasions does not make much of what is happening clear. On screen.

The first hour bites; the rest is better.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 16 September 2015]

Clark Newman (J. Eddie Peck) is bitten by a radioactive snake while on a road trip with his girlfriend Lisa (Jill Schoelen), after which his hand mutates into a deadly snakey-arm thingy.

The best part of an hour has passed before anything memorable happens in The Curse 2: The Bite, the first 50 or so minutes focusing on Clark and Lisa's relationship and the trial and tribulations of travelling salesman Harry (Jamie Farr) as he attempts to track down the couple after administering the wrong antidote. Fortunately, a wonderfully bonkers final act just about makes the waiting worthwhile, the good stuff kicking off with a cop having his still-beating heart pulled out of his mouth, followed not long after by a poor nurse getting her jaw yanked off.

The film ends with Lisa, dressed only in shirt and panties, being pursued by her rapidly mutating boyfriend, who lashes at her with his snake-hand's prehensile tongue before losing an eyeball and spewing reptiles from his mouth. After chasing the girl through a muddy building site, Clark impales himself on a steel pole in an attempt to end the horror, but his head splits open and a shonky snake creature slips into the mud, only to be blown to smithereens with a shotgun by Harry. Great stuff—it's just a shame about all the inconsequential guff that precedes it.

It was just a bite

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 14 January 2019]

Clark (J. Eddie Peck) and Lisa (Jill Schoelen) are a young couple taking a car trip across America with intent to see how devoted love can be. The trip would be a bore if it were not for some strange situations each involving snakes. Somewhere along the way a snake bites Clark on the hand and oddly enough it was apparently radioactive because the bite slowly transforms Clark's hand into a living snake.

This movie has no connection with the original "Curse" movie. It is not scary, not meant to be funny and lacks anything much redeemable. The cast also features: Jamie Farr, Bo Svenson and Bruce Marchiano.

Fun movie

[TheOldGuyFromHalloween3 · 10/10 · 7 July 2019]

Great movie. Alot of fun. The people who hate this movie are all idiots. Don't listen to them. Snakes rule!

Fond memories...

[paulclaassen · 6/10 · 29 July 2023]

Although this sounds like a sequel, the film is completely unrelated to 1987's 'The Curse', and apparently was called 'The Curse 2' only to capitalize on the success of 'The Curse'. There's therefore no need to watch 'The Curse' before watching 'The Bite'.

Of all the 80s horror films I watched as a child, this is one of the films that stuck in my mind. I fondly remember watching it for the first time, and how the ending grossed me out. With video stores no longer in operation, I finally found the film on streaming, and I'm delighted to say I enjoyed it just as much now as an adult as I did when I was a child (yes, I was allowed to watch these movies, regardless of age restriction... oops! I said it!).

Take the shortcut. It's perfectly safe. Yup, we've all heard that before in horror movies! Lovers Clark (J. Eddie Peck) and Lisa (Jill Schoelen) are on a road trip and decide to take a shortcut through a desert. Near an abandoned nuclear station, the road is covered in radioactive snakes, which they drive over. Later, when they reach their destination, Clark is bit by a snake which managed to find its way into the jeep they're travelling in.

The film takes enough time fleshing out the characters so we ultimately root for them. Like all young lovers, they also have hiccups between them, but in a way this established a closer bond between them. Soon after being bitten, Clark starts acting weird - and this is only just the beginning of a horrific ordeal and transformation that will consume Clark.

The practical effects are fantastic, and rather gross during the climax. Fair enough, this is not the greatest script, but the incredible effects effectively bring the story to life. 'The Curse 2: The Bite' still rate among my most memorable horror films of the 80s.

Lame stuff.

[willywants · 22 April 2004]

After a young man is bitten on the hand by a radioactive snake, his hand changes into a lethal snake head, which attacks everyone he comes into contact with. Also, his body becomes filled with snakes. Now, he must prevent himself from hurting others. "Curse II" is not only poorly made, but is also boring as watching paint dry. There are some gruesome parts, and screaming mad George's special effects range from really bad to acceptable, but the script is awful, the acting is so-so, and the music is extremely annoying. Don't watch 'Curse 2: the bite". it's a typical excuse for a sequel. (By the way, what does this have to do with the original?) 2-2.5/10.