Francis D. Lyon

Americans overseas abuse the hospitality they're shown and disrespect cultural and religious norms only to find terror pursuing them back home to the United States in revenge. Six G.I.'s are invited to secretly attend a Lamian ritual where women, apparently, can transform themselves into snakes. One of the soldiers disobeys the sanction on taking photographs and the leader of the cult swears vengeance. Shortly after returning to America a mysterious and exotic woman (Faith Domergue) enters their lives and the six begin to die, one after another - the strange shadow of a cobra preceding each death. "Cult of the Cobra" is an enjoyable occult thriller. The plot is fairly derivative and the build up of any tension is seriously hampered by the audience knowing from the outset exactly what's going on. These plotting failures are more than made up for, however, by some clever bits of direction from Francis D. Lyon (the slithering snake POV for example) and Russell Metty's shadowy cinematography. The male leads are fairly formulaic but Faith Domergue puts in a good turn as the seductive, but ultimately conflicted Lisa. Overall a decent addition to Universal's '50s monster roster and a film that leaves you pondering whether the cultural imperialism inherent in the plot was conscious or unconscious.… (meer)