Snake

The story of Cassandra, the Greek prophetess who was cursed by the gods with visions that none believed, is remade by cult-film actress Woronov as a contemporary American fable, starring Cassandra (""Sandra"") Wagner, who recounts her dramatic early life while being sheltered in San Bernardino at a Catholic hospice for the insane and drug-addicted. Sandra's first memories are of her grandmother, on whose farm in Ohio she was dumped by her hippie mother. Her grandmother's world is primal, with creeping flora, snakes and warnings (when her grandmother is drunk) about the brutality of men. This world disappears when the old woman dies and Sandra is sent to her mother, now trying a conventional life in suburban Cleveland with a new husband, who winds up overcome with lust for the teenage Sandra. At 17, Sandra escapes her mother's hatred by moving to L.A., where she's introduced to the sexual wonderland of nightclubs. Her first lover is Donald, whose many fetishes keep Sandra intrigued until she begins to dread all the arduous preparations, paraphernalia and playacting of their sex life. Then Luke appears, a drug dealer with snakelike yellow eyes, who apparently murders Donald at an orgy while a groggy, drunk Sandra looks on. Instead of killing her, too, Luke takes her with him to Idaho. Donald's murder was a hit, planned by Luke's brother along with some scary associates who want Luke to finish the job by disposing of Sandra, but the couple are in love. Woronov excels at depicting the ways sexual sophistication and excess often mask deeper anxiety and insecurity, effectively spelling out Sandra and Luke's fate in an uneven surrealistic montage of erotic love, sacrifice and brutality. (June)