Director: Charlie Steeds
Year: 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Snake
Plot:
After her parents leave for the weekend, a woman drags her friends along to his massive, remote mansion to have a party together, only to realize their plans have caused the escape of an exotic, killer snake into the house and force them and several other survivors to get out alive.
Review:
This was a really solid and likable genre effort. One of the better features with this one comes from the strong and generally cheesy starting point that brings about a fine setup for getting the group together at the house and interacting with the snake. Getting the early bits about the troubled family and how they’re all inherently vicious and cruel towards everyone due to the money they have and how they look down upon others, so that the other daughters’ desire to raid the house with her friends after they leave and throw a party becomes a fine starting point to get started. This carries over into her and her friends going around the house trying to have a special party with the house open, but coming across the returning family due to a setup from the main daughter trying to pull off a deranged heist plan against them, which is interrupted by the snake being free in the house the entire time. It’s all worthwhile enough and manages to provide this with enough solid points to be a fun way to get to the chaos, while trapping in deplorable people inside that will be fun to see tracked down and killed off.
That is nicely evident in the majority of the second half, focusing on the different methods to get out of the hostage situation brought about by the robbery plan that includes the snake screwing up their plans. The first few scenes of the snake roaming around the house, sneaking up on the different members of the group in the bathroom or taking out the unfaithful boyfriend in the bedroom, set this up by making its clandestine presence known while keeping their plans going unnoticed. By the time it strikes in the middle of the takeover attempt, everything is set up rather well with the snake targeting the trapped group inside and slowly attacking them throughout the house, as we get a slew of great encounters and confrontations relying on utilizing the wholly cheesy snake prop to provide a lot of fun interactions as they try to make their escape. With a fast, breezy pace that makes everything come together rather nicely, there’s plenty to like here.
There are some issues that hold this one down. The biggest issue with this one is the rather unlikable main group of people we’re supposed to be following, as nearly the entire family makes for a wholly frustrating part to make their plight all the more sympathetic. With the father and stepmother simply one-note money-first types more interested in showing how lavish and expensive things are for their own betterment, the one daughter an irredeemable schemer willing to blackmail family and kill those in her way of getting a hold of the family bank account, and the other daughter scheming with friends to sneak into the house to have a sneaky party as a means of getting back at her family for cutting her off, this all makes for a hard time getting to care about them in their struggle to get out of the house. It doesn’t hurt that so much of the interactions with the snake are reliant on stupidity to keep it going, letting the snake take others out without any interference or attempts to stop it, and being quite happy to rush into confrontations without thinking about things. As well, with the cheesy special effects being dominated by the goofy puppet and its unnatural reactions, trying to play everything off, there are some problems to be had with the film.
Overview: ***.5/5
An immensely fun and likable cheesy creature feature, there’s a lot to like here that helps to make this worthwhile enough to offset the minor drawbacks on display, holding it down. Those with an interest in this style of genre fare or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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