You can't possibly tell me that this was intended as a serious horror movie. If it was, that simply does not bode well. Then again, it's not specifically funny, either. What happened?
The very premise offers firm foundation for some genre fun, but nearly from the very start some inclusions nearly inspire laughter ("nearly" being the key word). The first major scene to truly lay the groundwork for the plot sounds like the set-up for a joke ("A sorceress, a priest, and a politician attend a dinner party..."); most scenes of snakes in action are notably inauthentic, including heavy thuds from the resident Foley artist; the big To-Do in the town is, of all things, a track for racing dogs (welp, this hasn't aged well in at least one regard); and so on. All these bits and many, many more are so pointedly overt that it increasingly becomes hard to take 'Jaws of Satan' seriously. I'm not sure if credited screenwriter Gerry Holland was purposefully trying to derail this horror flick, if they had some unspoken beef with James Callaway who had originally written the story, or if they were just incompetent - but one way or another, director Bob Claver apparently went along with it all. The dialogue, scene writing, and characterizations all feed into this notion, in some cases the acting and direction, and still other aspects including parts of Roger Kellaway's score.
Yet I really don't think this was intended to be a horror-comedy. Even if we say that dollops of levity were deliberately added in as with most any such pictures, the incidences here are far too gawky, and not applied evenly - let alone the most eyebrow-raising instances. The feature stands at a very odd crossroads of (a) seemingly trying to play the scenario straight, including tried and true themes of corrupt and myopic politicians, and clerics who are uncertain in their faith, and (b) possibly infusing fractions of lighter moments along the way, but (c) being so astoundingly heavy-handed in most capacities that what we can assume to be the intended value all but entirely evaporates in the process. And there is, actually, earnest value here. The root story holds definite promise, and there are some great ideas. From a standpoint of the technical craft and the fundamental work, the cast generally do a swell job, the direction is capable, and stunts, effects, and special makeup look terrific. The filming locations are excellent. But even the basic premise is treated poorly as the priest and a certain central figure - you know, Satan, who is in the very title - is strongly deemphasized until the very end, and 'Jaws of Satan' mostly comes across as another "nature run amok" flick, and particularly a slithery reptilian predecessor to Frank Marshall's 'Arachnophobia.'
I don't think it's outright bad. I do think it's direly scattered, and either no one knew what they wanted it to be in the first place, or Holland, Callaway, and/or Claver were having a long run of incredibly off days in their writing and direction. Either way, the result is the same: unless you're a diehard fan of someone involved, there's no real reason to check this out. I won't say to avoid it, and there are much worse things one could watch; I don't regret watching, as far as that goes. But there's just not enough value here to make it worth anyone's time, not least in light of the countless other movies one could be watching instead. Mark 'Jaws of Satan' as a curiosity, and let's leave it at that.
The very premise offers firm foundation for some genre fun, but nearly from the very start some inclusions nearly inspire laughter ("nearly" being the key word). The first major scene to truly lay the groundwork for the plot sounds like the set-up for a joke ("A sorceress, a priest, and a politician attend a dinner party..."); most scenes of snakes in action are notably inauthentic, including heavy thuds from the resident Foley artist; the big To-Do in the town is, of all things, a track for racing dogs (welp, this hasn't aged well in at least one regard); and so on. All these bits and many, many more are so pointedly overt that it increasingly becomes hard to take 'Jaws of Satan' seriously. I'm not sure if credited screenwriter Gerry Holland was purposefully trying to derail this horror flick, if they had some unspoken beef with James Callaway who had originally written the story, or if they were just incompetent - but one way or another, director Bob Claver apparently went along with it all. The dialogue, scene writing, and characterizations all feed into this notion, in some cases the acting and direction, and still other aspects including parts of Roger Kellaway's score.
Yet I really don't think this was intended to be a horror-comedy. Even if we say that dollops of levity were deliberately added in as with most any such pictures, the incidences here are far too gawky, and not applied evenly - let alone the most eyebrow-raising instances. The feature stands at a very odd crossroads of (a) seemingly trying to play the scenario straight, including tried and true themes of corrupt and myopic politicians, and clerics who are uncertain in their faith, and (b) possibly infusing fractions of lighter moments along the way, but (c) being so astoundingly heavy-handed in most capacities that what we can assume to be the intended value all but entirely evaporates in the process. And there is, actually, earnest value here. The root story holds definite promise, and there are some great ideas. From a standpoint of the technical craft and the fundamental work, the cast generally do a swell job, the direction is capable, and stunts, effects, and special makeup look terrific. The filming locations are excellent. But even the basic premise is treated poorly as the priest and a certain central figure - you know, Satan, who is in the very title - is strongly deemphasized until the very end, and 'Jaws of Satan' mostly comes across as another "nature run amok" flick, and particularly a slithery reptilian predecessor to Frank Marshall's 'Arachnophobia.'
I don't think it's outright bad. I do think it's direly scattered, and either no one knew what they wanted it to be in the first place, or Holland, Callaway, and/or Claver were having a long run of incredibly off days in their writing and direction. Either way, the result is the same: unless you're a diehard fan of someone involved, there's no real reason to check this out. I won't say to avoid it, and there are much worse things one could watch; I don't regret watching, as far as that goes. But there's just not enough value here to make it worth anyone's time, not least in light of the countless other movies one could be watching instead. Mark 'Jaws of Satan' as a curiosity, and let's leave it at that.