SNAKEMAN

The discovery, in the Amazon, of a human skeleton that seems to be more than 200 years old pushes a team of scientists to venture into the Amazon forests, hoping to find what is said to be the elixir of immortality. Upon arriving at the location, our 'heroes' will discover the existence of an ancient tribe whose members worshipped a terrifying and enormous three-headed snake that will start sowing panic and death among those who dared to set foot in those dangerous forests. What is 'Snakeman'? Judging by the title and the poster with which this film was released in Italy, one would expect to encounter a B-movie featuring a terrible man-serpent, a humanoid that turns into a reptile and goes around sowing death and destruction, a film that manages to exploit an unusual and original villain and that can at least fascinate and/or entertain the viewer for about an hour and a half. Instead, no! Do not be fooled by the title (the original title of this atrocity is 'The Snake King') and the poster, because this 'Snakeman – The Predator' is a film that does not feature any man-serpent, in which there is no mutation or cross between humans and reptiles, and in which there is nothing entertaining, but only a lot of boredom and despair for having spent precious money on renting, or worse, buying the DVD. This obscene film can safely be considered the counterfeit copy of 'Anaconda – In Search of the Cursed Orchid', since in 'Snakeman' we will also see a team of researchers/scientists searching for the elixir of eternal youth, also chased by a 'monstrous' crawling being, but which has nothing to do with the giant anacondas of the other film; in fact, it is an absurd and unlikely three-headed creature (a sort of Hydra) of insane dimensions and made with truly terrible digital effects and so obscene as to envy the CG effects of now dated TV series like 'Hercules'. What most strikes is not the fact that such a work has at its disposal series Z digital effects (this is a problem common to many low-budget films made and distributed only for the home video market) but the fact that said effects are flaunted on every occasion, so that throughout the film we will be shown this titan in all its splendor. Furthermore, to worsen the situation, the 'brilliant' screenplay decides to adorn the work with decidedly stupid and ridiculous finds, concentrated mostly in the ending, in which we will see the monster stopping to kill randomly and out of hunger and suddenly becoming aware of the situation so as to make a selection: kill and eat the bad guys and let the good guys triumph; and here then our 'hero' protagonists can stop fearing the ferocious serpent and can finally kiss each other calmly in front of it under the sign of a sugary and never so out-of-place happy ending. The film (which from now on I will call squalor because it does not deserve to be called 'film') is not saved in any way either from the point of view of direction, since behind the camera we have an anonymous Allan A. Goldstein, who directs the squalor with a great and marked television vein; nor from the point of view of the actors, because among the many unknown faces stands out as a star one of the many clones/brothers Baldwin and to be precise Stephen Baldwin, who is certainly the worst of the family. In conclusion, this 'Snakeman – The Predator' shows itself to be a real squalor, a film that disappoints in every way, that does not manage to engage the viewer who watches the story with much passivity, boredom, and disgust, and that manages to obtain the gold palm as the worst snake-movie of all time! To be avoided without regrets.