Black Mamba (film)

Black Mamba is a 1974 horror film directed by George Rowe and starring John Ashley, Marlene Clark, Pilar Pilapil, and Eddie Garcia.

Premise
A doctor gets involved with a woman who practices witchcraft and can turn into a python. She intends for a young child to be her next victim. The doctor tries to stop her.

Cast

 * John Ashley
 * Marlene Clark
 * Pilar Pilapil
 * Eddie Garcia

Production
The film is notorious for depicting an autopsy performed on a real human corpse. A real corpse was exhumed from one of the local prisons and used on film. "It is a wild film," said Ashley, ""very graphic, very gory."

The film was originally known as Witchcraft. Ashley said it co-starred one of the top female stars in the Philippines and that he made it just before his involvement in Apocalypse Now. He says the film was financed by a Chinese man involved in the advertising business.

Release
Black Mamba was not widely screened. The film was released in the Philippines but not the US. A person bought it and took it to Hong Kong to redub it but ran out of money.

The film remained unreleased until after Ashley's death in 1997.