The Snake King (2005) (TV)

Director:

Allan A. Goldstein

Writers:

Declan O'Brien (writer) and
Kenneth M. Badish (story)

Release Date:

9 April 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Pure Venom.

Plot:

An object is found that points to the secret of eternal youth so a research team is sent to find the fountain only to find it is protected by a giant snake

Plot Keywords:

Snake | Giant Snake | Longevity | Amazon | Amazon Tribe

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Stephen Baldwin	...	Matt Ford
Jayne Heitmeyer	...	Dr. Susan Elters
Larry Day	...	Dr. Rick Gordon
Gary Hudson	...	Dr. John Simon
Ross McCall	...	Timothy
Phil Miler	...	Dr. Richman (as Marcelo Gomes de Oliveira)
Gideon Rosa	...	Dahar
Caco Monteiro	...	Will Bahia (as Caludio de Carvalho Monteiro)
Shelly Varod	...	Sid
Mike Zafra	...	Rush Fernandez
Narcival Rubens	...	Tika
Lucas Wilber Silva Laborda	...	Bada
Charles Paraventi	...	Ronald
Michael P. Flannigan	...	Jim (as Michael Flannigan)
Sandro Lyrio	...	Edwardo

Also Known As:

Snakeman (UK) (USA) (video title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violence.

Runtime:

96 min (DVD) | USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | Singapore:M18 | New Zealand:R16 | Netherlands:16 | France:-12 (TV rating) | UK:15 (TV rating) | USA:R | Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Brazil

Company:

Nu Image Films

Snake King - The New King of Awful Giant Snake Movies!

Someone at the Sci-Fi Channel must have thought making a movie about a giant, five-headed snake in the Amazon would make for a nifty monster movie. It probably could have if it hadn't been for the fact that the giant, five-headed snake is so huge that we generally only see one, two, or three heads on the screen at any given time. That is until the climax of the movie when all five are finally shown, albeit briefly, and even then you never really get a full body view of the creature to figure out how everything is interconnected. The movie establishes that the snake has a tail so they can't use the excuse of it having heads at both ends. I want to know where the hell the fourth and fifth heads disappeared to for the first three quarters of the movie. Were they on a smoke break? Were they given conscientious objector status for refusing to take part in the killing if innocent people? Were they off auditioning for a role in Python 3?

Oh, but wait, there are still more problems with the giant, five-headed snake. Despite the fact that it appears to be big enough to give Godzilla a heck of a fight, this colossal, multi-headed snake is still able to hide undetected in the jungle brush until it's too late. The noise it makes when slithering through the jungle is minimal and keep in mind we are talking about an enormous monster with five-heads, each at least the size of an automobile. If it wasn't constantly roaring (This snake doesn't hiss. It roars.), then it would barely generate any noise at all. People are constantly running away before coming to a stop and looking up just in time for one of the heads to lurch down and nab them. Despite being gigantic it still consistently managed to not only move around unseen, it actually sneaks up on people.

And if that wasn't enough, there are some serious continuity issues regarding the giant, five-headed snakes' size. It appears to suffer from Deep Star Six syndrome, and by that I mean its size changes depending on what is required of it in the scene. This is highlighted in the climax set inside its lair where it seems to shrink and enlarge at random. Each head is the size of an automobile and its cave entrance only appears big enough to fit one head and neck at a time so we don't even get an explanation as to how the thing even manages to get inside this cave chamber to begin with. Heck, at one point, this gargantuan serpent even manages to hide underwater in a small river just waiting to spring out and surprise someone. Good grief!

These are just the problems with the monster. And don't argue suspension of disbelief because there is a huge difference between suspension of disbelief and insulting one's intelligence. Worst of all, the CGI used to bring the giant, five-headed snake is some of the least convincing I've ever seen in a Sci-Fi Channel movie, and believe me, that is really saying something.

The fact that the monster turned out to be such a conceptual catastrophe is kind of a good thing because I'd hate to see a potentially cool movie monster wasted on a production as lame, formulaic, and downright dull as this stinker was. A complete waste of time and energy.