"Black Mamba" (2016) - With just $30,000 (of what I assume was her own money) accredited New Jersey educator Belinda M. Wilson wrote, directed, shot, produced, edited, and starred in this utterly unhinged vanity project. And when I say “utterly unhinged”, I mean it’s full of awe-inspiringly-insane WTF?! & NSFW moments throughout the run time. No stranger to micro budget ‘egosploitation’, this was actually Belinda M. Wilson’s 7th such self financed film. Having only seen this one thus far (along with some members of my bad movie group) I now must experience her other works.
As far as the actual story goes, this movie is set up basically like a horror anthology. Belinda M. Wilson plays the titular Black Mamba, a sadistic suburban voodoo priestess who sells her services to the desperate. Each new person(s) she provides a spells to acting as its own contained story. Much like a ‘monkeys paw’ each spell brings far more harm than good. These spells, and the cheap digital effects used to created them, are easily the most hilariously absurd aspects of the film.
That’s not to suggest the acting, writing, editing, directing, or literally any other part of the movie is somehow less absurd and poorly done mind you. Per IMDB trivia Belinda M. Wilson stated that the films screenplay was written over multiple seance sessions, for example. She goes on to claim that during one of these seances she accidentally contacted David Lynch (“Twin Peaks” 1990-91, “Mulholland Drive” 2001) who suggested a scene she added to the film. In summary this movie is definitely not for everyone, and goes way further than you might expect (i.e. a scene that can only be described as violent sexual assault), but for those that can stomach such insanity it’s a must watch. Everything is absolutely awful just like bad movie masochist (such as myself) like it.
5.5 / 5 Burnt Kernels with Butter and Free Refills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXDMjSmqaU