Mega Snake

This promotional image is lying to you. There are no tumbling skyscrapers, no jet fighters, and no helicopters in Mega Snake. The snake is not 500 feet tall. Feedback is, in fact, not "featured" in the film, but he only makes an appearance for 5 minutes. What do we have then? A Sci-Fi Original movie that succeeds in being entertaining.

We're introduced to two brothers from a family of religious snake handlers in a small town. Ambulance driver Les Daniels has grown up with a fear of snakes ever since his father was killed at a church while snake handling. His older brother Duff Daniels has followed the family tradition of snake handling and constantly berates Les about his fear of snakes. In need of new deadly snakes for his church, Duff visits Cherokee snake salesman Screaming Hawk. The salesman refuses to sell him a mysterious snake encased in a jar, telling him that it's a mythical snake that killed his ancestors and must never be released. Screaming Hawk tells him that there are three rules for the snake, "Don't let it out. Don't feed it. Don't fear the heart of the snake." Duff decides to steal the snake, and accidentally releases it once he gets home. As all three of Screaming Hawk's rules are broken throughout the rest of the film, the snake begins feeding on the citizens of the town, growing from a mere 12 inches to a gargantuan size, and wreaking havoc upon the town.

There's some conflict points in the film that it attempts to address. Les and Duff have the usual brother issues over the death of their father. Les is in a love triangle with his girlfriend Erin and a controlling cop named Bo. And as usual, once Les and Erin figure out that a snake is on the lose, the authority in the town doesn't believe them until "it is too late." These really take a backseat, though, to the main focus of the film: The Mega Snake.

The snake is sloppily rendered in CGI, looking like a monster out of a big budget Hollywood film from 1999. This works to the benefit of the film. This hearkens back to such films as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, where the protagonists are stabbing at something that clearly was put into the film post-production. Regardless of it's authenticity, we're privy to the snakes mayhem. And trust me, no one is spared. We cheer for the little guy as he grows into a behemoth and an audience favorite. During the course of the film, entire families are eaten, including children. Dogs and cats are gobbled up like snacks. And in an amusing turn of events, an entire section of people on an amusement park ride are beheaded in one swoop. Most of the violence in the film is comically over the top, and this makes it an enjoyable movie to watch with friends. As a straight to video release, this is definitely a good rental film to sit down with some popcorn and enjoy.