Director: Dicai Zhang
Year: 2019
Country: China
Alternate Titles: Bianyi Kuang Mang 2; Python Attack
Genre: Snake
Plot:
After a disastrous groundbreaking ceremony, the developer’s son takes over a lavish hotel when it becomes a functioning property, but when the area is soon overrun by the snakes roused by the original building of the hotel in retaliation for being disturbed forces him to stop the creatures.
Review:
This one proved to be quite an enjoyable and fun killer snake film. One of the better features with this one comes from the whole setup on display, which is incredibly well-detailed and has a lot to like. The main focus on the relationship with the greedy son who takes over the property after his father turns his attention to other matters after the initial encounter rousing the King Snake and his kind-hearted ways being genuine running counter to the son’s desire to contain more wealth, is a fine touch here, with it setting up their dynamics quite well. The secondary storyline about him trying to repair his relationship with his family while keeping his dealings with the thugs secret who are trying to find a pair of jewels in the hotel but soon become distracted by the greed of capturing the Snake King, offers the kind of solid setup featured here to bring a lot of fun moments from the setup.
That leads incredibly well to the cheesy series of snake attacks that have quite a lot to like. The main starting sequence here, where the construction team finds the snake sleeping underground and going on a rampage at the site, snapping and killing others, leaves this one incredibly fun compared to the sight of a digger being manipulated to fight a gigantic killer snake. Other brief bits later on show the snake swarming into the hotel, attacking guests, or the thugs trying to rough up the various interlopers around the hotel for their boss to keep things moving until it gets to the big scenes of the snakes running wild over the guests. These are exceptionally fun and cheesy, with the swarms of creatures appearing out of nowhere and appearing to the group in various locations throughout the building, offering tons of fun escapes and encounters as the confrontations provide the kind of silly environment in a frenetic situation, giving this one quite a lot to like.
There isn’t a whole lot to dislike here, but it does have a few minor issues. The main drawback to be had here is the fact that, for such a short genre effort already, there are a lot of subplots and sidestories that don’t need to be there. The dealings with the greedy son and his relationship with the security guard trying to keep everything running smoothly are unnecessarily utilized here when other factors could’ve been used to show his nature without running these scenes over and over again, much like the rescue of the blind character from the snakes or the series of interjections that take place involving the series of characters he saves from the snakes which just prove what’s going on more than anything important. As well, some of the humor here is quite weird and seems included more for the characters performing it than anything else, while so many of the interactions are at the wrong moment, ruining the impact of the scene completely. Alongside the cheesy CGI typical of this kind of film, these are the main issues featured here.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely enjoyable cheesy killer snake film, there’s plenty to enjoy about it that holds it up over its issues that are expected and don't really hold it back too much. Those who are fans of this particular style of feature or are curious about this one will have plenty to enjoy here, while most others who are turned off by these types of features should heed caution.
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