When it comes to creature features, some creatures are overrepresented (fish), others under (rabbits, for obvious reasons) in terms of the sheer volume of titles. Hell, sharks represent a cottage industry unto themselves with the dead-eyed killers of the deep even hybridized with other beasts (Shartopus, Dinoshark) to keep the party going and the titles multiplying.
But one thing’s for certain: most nature run amok films have at least one (or at best two) classic films per species to add to the horror canon. There’s Jaws for Sharks, Piranha for fish that aren’t sharks, Birds for Birds, Alligator and Crawl, which are very solid gator flicks, Cujo for dogs, Roar for very large felines, Backcountry for bears…Not so much with snakes.
Going back to the 70s’ Ssssss, through to Anaconda and Snakes on a Plane…snake-focused horrors haven’t achieved great heights and remain rooted to terra firma. And Megaboa doesn’t change that.
In Megaboa, Eric Roberts portrays Dr. Malone, an anthropologist. Speaking of representation, that’s a profession that is VASTLY overrepresented in horror films, as you frequently need a subject matter expert to explain stuff away – especially supernatural mumbo jumbo. In Megaboa, he is leading a team of grad students through an Amazonian jungle, to do what exactly, we don’t know.
They come across a wild-eyed poacher, the doc is bit by a poisonous spider, and there’s a “60 foot snake” roaming about (“50 foot” in the poster, for alliteration’s sake).
Seriously, constant references to the size of the snake is…Freudian. Or something.
Soon, the giant beast begins squeezing the life out of the principals, but not the film. This one is a lively affair, and at risk of damning with faint praise, one of the better movies ranked in the “2s” on IMDb.
It’s not a world-beater by any means, but could’ve been executed far far worse, especially considering how many awful killer snake movies have slithered out onto streaming services of late.
**1/2 (out of 5)
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