Mega Snake

In my mind the Sci-Fi Channel makes made for TV movies that rank right up there at the bottom. Mostly. But this one was better than most of what they serve up. Most of the players? Don't look for Oscar alerts. But ... Michael Shanks is a fine actor and played his part well. Ben Cardinal was also a bright spot, he came off VERY well given the character he played. And, dare I say it? There was one portion of the flick that contained, well, very positive Feedback. That part was just fun. One thing that stood out, as with any Sci-Fi Channel movie, for its poor quality was the computer generated special effects. All their snakes look alike and this one looked like some sort of picture laid on top of another picture. But the plot and characters were kinda cool, so, over all ... Thumbs up for a change. Shocking feedback, huh?

Dismal script with even worse direction that bounces between being random and clichéd. Improbable characters (the police deputy that JUST HAPPENS to "have a PhD in zoology") plus completely stereotypical plot devices (the Indian with a secret passed down from "his people", and the clichéd County Fair that no one can close because it's too important even though The Evil Monster is rampaging in the countryside) with some of the worst acting and casting seen on American Basic Cable (accents for residents of this Tenn. community are all over the place) and a good measure of sub-par special effects and poor dubbing equals this complete waste of time. And "Feedback's" appearance is barely more than a disjointed and forced cameo in the last half hour... if you're watching for that, save your time. If you are watching for some other reason, what's wrong with you? OK, there are a few so-bad it's funny moments (especially the reaction of the mother of the family at the beach as soon as she sees the, erm, "Mega Snake"... we rewound and watched that scene half a dozen times...) but still...

In 1986, in Tennessee, the father of the boys Lester and Duff Daniels is murdered by a snake in a weird ceremony. Twenty years later, Duff (John T. Woods) collects snakes while Les (Michael Shanks) fears them.

One day, Duff visits the Kitawa Indian Screaming Hawk (Ben Cardinal) to buy snakes and sees a small snake in a jar. He decides to buy the snake, but Screaming Hawk tells that the species is not for sale. He explains that it is the dangerous Unteka that has three rules to raise it: (1) never let the snake out of the jar; (2) never let it eat living animals; and (3) never fear the heart of the snake. Duff steals the Unteka and brings the snake home. However, he accidentally drops the jar and the snake eats his cat. The snake gets bigger and bigger eating animals and the locals. Now Les, his former girlfriend Erin (Siri Baruc) and Screaming Hawk have to stop the Unteka to save the local population.

"Mega Snake" is a funny and entertaining Sy Fy production absolutely underrated in IMDb. The story uses elements of "Gremlins", "Anaconda" and "Jaws" and the director Tibor Takács makes a good B-movie with his limited budget combined with humor and funny characters. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Megasnake"

SciFi Channel makes a movie featuring the "Who Wants To Be a Superhero?" series winner "Feedback". But the movie wasn't about him, it's about a snake that grows many feet and kills it prey unlike any other reptile ever could. You got two brothers, one does the handling of very dangerous snakes. He gets fascinated with one that's so dangerous, he's got to have it. But, he ignores the warning of the seller. It was not for sale, and do not let it feed on anything living. It kills the cat, the brothers' widowed mother, the dog, and so forth. It was venomous, and other kill techniques are in it as also. The two drunk snake killers seem to have a better head on their shoulders than the local sheriff. The paramedic brother, the brainy ranger, and the snake wrangler were pretty much the heroes of this movie. As for the hero Feedback, he held his part on keeping the public safe from evil. The movie could have gotten more watchable when they show more "Feedback" and less of the monster snake. It could have been a better movie. It was too much of "SSSSS" reject. Other giant snake movies were a lot more fun than that! 2 out of 5 stars!

Daft and delightful big animal romp. The performances are all delivered with a wink-and-a-nudge along with suspiciously bad dialogue (probably written that way). One line of dialogue is reminiscent of something from Ed Wood's films. "He's dead!?" "Extremely". The special effects aren't too shabby, and the film pulls a few surprises, such as a poorly put together couple trying to deal with their problems, people looking like they are about to escape and then snubbing it etc. There's some mumbo jumbo about Native American folklore, which is a tad silly, but makes a change from the usual genetically modified snakes. This makes it man vs. nature in its purest form, and not man's mistake. If you like big snake movies you wont be disappointed by the number of clichés and some of the deviations from the norm.