In the remote Northumbrian village of Bellingham, set in 1890, Dr. Horace Adderson, John Cazabon, has spent years stabilizing his wife Martha Adderson, Dorothy Frere, whose mental illness seems to respond only to a dangerous treatment: regular injections of venom from snakes. When Martha dies in childbirth, the midwife Aggie Harker, Elsie Wagstaff, believes the newborn girl is a curse—the Devil’s offspring—because the baby does not blink and feels cold to the touch. Aggie initially tries to end the infant’s life with a stabbing, but is interrupted. The mob then storms Adderson’s laboratory and his home, setting both aflame. In a desperate twist, Dr. Murton, Arnold Marlé, who attended the delivery, rescues the baby and entrusts her to a compassionate local shepherd, hoping to hide her until morning. Murton later departs for extensive research in Africa, unaware that Adderson died of a snakebite just before the fire and fully believing the child would be sought after by Adderson’s killers.
Nineteen years pass, and Murton’s return is clouded by a string of deaths on the moors. Each corpse carries lethal king cobra venom, prompting the villagers to fear a mysterious Curse of the Snake Woman. Col. Clyde Wynborn, Geoffrey Denton, who has retired to the hamlet, contacts an old Scotland Yard colleague—the Inspector, Hugh Moxey—to report the strange happenings. The investigation lands on the desk of Charles Prentice, John McCarthy, a young detective who is initially skeptical of any supernatural cause. He soon encounters a striking figure, Atheris, Susan Travers, a beautiful young woman who is both unblinking and unfazed by touch, a person who seems to embody the legend of the snake woman. Atheris is drawn to Charles as he plays a tune on a snake-charmer’s flute given to him by Wynborn.
As the case unfolds, Aggie appears again at Addie Harker’s house, where she pins a voodoo doll to the wall and instructs Charles to shoot it three times. When he complies, Aggie proclaims that the Curse is now broken—yet she insists that Charles must shoot Atheris three times as well. Charles remains unconvinced, but a stop at the local pub convinces him otherwise. Polly, the barmaid, Frances Bennett, persuades him that the curse is real, nudging him toward a confrontation with Atheris. Charles then discovers a full-body shed skin—proof that Atheris is more than human—and Aggie explains the implications, deepening his belief that the villagers’ fears may be justified.
Meanwhile, a village boy dies from a snakebite, and Murton becomes convinced that Atheris is the killer. He confronts her with a shotgun, and she kills him in self-defense. The tragedy escalates as the boy’s father, drinking away his grief, travels to the moors seeking vengeance and is also slain by Atheris. After discovering Murton’s body, Charles finally corners Atheris and tells her he understands she cannot help what she is, and he vows to protect her. Yet she instinctively transforms into a cobra and menaces him, forcing Charles to shoot her three times, as Aggie had predicted.
Returning to Scotland Yard, Charles files his report, but the Inspector decides to destroy it. The motive remains ambiguous: not that the truth would be believed, but that revealing it might cause more panic or draw unwanted attention to the strange legacy looming over Bellingham. In the end, the tale lingers around the tension between fear, belief, and the inexplicable powers that bind the people of this quiet village to an ancient, venomous fate.
- Barkis, Michael Logan, makes a brief appearance, underscoring the village’s everyday life and its drift toward superstition in the wake of the eerie events.
