Director: Matthew B.C.
Year: 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Medusa: Queen of the Serpents
Genre: Body-Horror
Plot:
Forced back into a life of prostitution, a young woman arrives at a trailer park brothel and forced to serve clients to feed her drug addiction, but when one of the encounters results in a suspicious snake bite she finds herself turning into a snake-like creature and must find out the cause to stop it from continuing.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty interesting genre effort. One of the better features here is the film’s likable setup that brings us into the world of this traveling caravan of prostitutes that we follow. The idea of keeping this one focused around the trailer park that revolves around a world of drug abuse, self-esteem issues some of the girls are resigned to this life while others think they’re above it all and encounters with violent customers looking to simply get off without anything else going on in their lives offers a fairly unique bent to this kind of storyline. It adds a darker edge to their lives seeing this aspect played up as much as it is at the beginning of the film alongside the lack of real horror elements at present here which only serves to enhance their lives that much more.
Once this turns into a more conventional genre film with the initial bite and her subsequent slow-building change, this one becomes quite a bit more fun. The initial scenes of her coming to terms with what’s happening as she lashes out at others and violently biting them only to wonder why her body begins peeling unnaturally bring this one along quite nicely. Not only featuring some decent effects-work in the physical changes and the few kills, but the main point in these scenes is also the pointed commentary on female inequality and how the powers she’s acquired have turned her into a better, stronger person. Overall, these are what hold the film up.
There are some issues to be had with the film. The main drawback on display is the films’ somewhat stilted pacing that doesn’t really generate much in the way of interesting action for a long section of the film. With the early stages of the film getting to know the characters and their lives before going into the early stages of the transformation, it takes a long time before anything is really done with the change and understanding what’s happening to her. As great as this material is involving the build-up to her change, it’s really only the final half-hour where it really lets loose with those factors which can put off some viewers at times.
The other small factor holding this one back is the rather strange inclusion of a cult of snake-worshippers that's thrown in at the last minute to try to include some motivation for what happened to her. However, rather than spell things out this inclusion ends up asking more questions about what the purpose behind them is, where they've been the whole time, how the girl falls in line with their plans, and what their overall goal is which is way too much to put on the final moments of the film. On top of these flaws, the usual assortment of low-budget issues from the utterly cheesy CGI that drags you out of the film completely, are the main problems here.
Overview: ****/5
One of the more enjoyable indie films created from this company, there’s a lot more on offer here than just low-budget creature feature thrills which may or may not be something most fans will like here. Those who are willing to look at what this one features, appreciate the style, or are fans of the creative crew and their past work should look into this one while most others should heed caution here.
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