I think we’ve finally reached the point where Chinese monster movies are now easily the best in the world, with the only exception being the big budget American blockbuster films.
I say that because when it comes to realistic looking snakes, I’ve never seen anything better.
What China lacks in horror movies they more than make up for in their Monster and Creature Features titles. Unburdened by theatrical censorship and armed with the knowledge that snake movies have universal appeal, they’ve been churning out Monty Python 2, Rising Boas In A Girl’s School and now this like there’s no tomorrow. It doesn’t hurt that they are clearly doing something right since this movie features such recognisable Hong Kong actors as Paul Che from Fruit Chan’s Coffin Homes and Terence Yin as the main bad guy who has appeared in a whole slew of Hong Kong action movies including Cold War 2 and Tomb Raider.
PLOT
A group of circus performers get stranded in a tropical rainforest after their boat and its skipper is eaten (and destroyed) by an anaconda with a special red marking. They cross paths with an evil poacher who is hunting said anaconda, realizing he might now have enough bait to catch him. But being circus performers they have a few survival tricks up their sleeves.
ABOUT THE FILM
As fun and wacky as this film is (and it definitely establishes that within its opening twenty or so minutes where it wants you to know it has a couple of very sexy girls on its roster), unfortunately it isn’t quite as great as it could’ve been.
There certainly are a lot of positives going for it. A genuinely likable cast of characters (including Taoist priest & hopping zombie-costumed cousin) makes their death scenes hit little closer home while some impressive CGI snakes will leave you wondering whether they actually found a 60ft long anaconda and trained it to be an actor in this film!
There’s also a hilarious dream sequence that looks fantastic, and a decent cast of well-known actors only hamming their performances up at the appropriate moments. This ain’t your typical low budget straight to streaming schlock. But it does lack in coherent story. (If that’s what you’re looking for.)
It is implied multiple times that the performers are actually being sold off but we never find out who they’re being sold off to and for what purpose (amendment: this is explained, I made a mistake). We also don’t really get to understand the motivations behind our evil poacher other than money.
Then again this is a creature feature. Do we really need to know this much about the characters?
WHAT ARE MY OVERALL THOUGHTS?
The most important thing is for you to have fun with this movie. And by golly you will. Track it down!
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