Death of a Snowman

Death of a Snowman (1978) - released by Synapse films 2010






Sometimes you can judge a film by its promo art. And Death of a Snowman's cover pulled me right in. I'm sure you can guess why.


Beyond the hot assassin portrayed by screenwriter Bima Stagg (whose name I must steal for a character), this South African grindhouse number is a choice bit of blaxploitation. Steve Chaka is the journalist's journalist who becomes involved with an all-black vigilante group known as the War on Crime. WoC's motive is to clean up the streets of Johannesburg. Pooling all the money from corruption and drug deals into helping kids.


Chaka's friendship with a white detective Deel(played by Nigel Davenport) becomes strained as the journalist gets information on the WoC's "hits" before they occur.


It's obvious Chaka is not the mysterious leader of the WoC because the two men actually meet. The reveal of who the WoC actually are is so good I am not going to ruin that here. I found myself getting sucked deeper into the film while I waited for Stagg's hairy hitman to show up. When he finally does materialize, I found it worth the wait.


The music is perfectly funky and the cinematography is  good too. While Stagg's screenplay contains some of the most groan-inducing lines I've heard recently (seemingly nice journalist Chaka tries to growl "If there's anything you know baby, it's how to make a man come!"), it also has some of the coolest dialog for Stagg's character, the hitman Johnson. When asked if he feels anything while killing another person, Johnson casually responds: "Nothing…except a part of me the rest doesn't listen's to."


Nigel Davenport makes a decent go at being a cop's cop and tries to maintain his friendship with Chaka despite the racial tensions and rampant corruption going on in Johannesburg society.

Make no mistake ,this is a blaxploitation film (the opening sequence would have fit nicely into the hilarious blaxploitation ode Black Dynamite), complete with dicey editing, wooden acting and a great soundtrack. The reveal of the War on Crime and the interesting journey Chuka embarks upon makes Death of a Snowman worth a viewing.


For the record, I'm not an expert on film or sound quality. I will say, if you like '70s grindhouse crime and/or blaxploitation films, you'll dig this.

A second viewing resulted in my higher rating.


Catch the trailer here.

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