The tyranist's thoughts
I've never actually been a huge fan of the B-monster movie. They're like Apple Jacks to me. That first bite isn't bad, but pretty soon the whole lot is sour and you can't touch them for a year. There are some exceptions to this, like Lake Placid, but for the most part, I can sometimes laugh at them and sometimes just despise them. This falls into the last category. Which is strange since I didn't actively hate it while it was running and only when it finished did I start to think about how bad it was.
And that is really one of the interesting things about this movie. I found it sort of captivating and terrible all in the same moment. The creature was decent but not great. The acting was pretty average. The dialogue was never outright terrible. The movie just seemed to sail along in a perfectly average state. But when it was over, it still seemed pretty bad. I guess the whole concept of a thirty foot cross between a King Cobra and an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake is pretty ridiculous. And now that I think about it the characters did do some pretty stupid things.
So the story basically runs as follows. Experimental lab screws up and a super aggressive, super deadly snake gets loose. Two years later it finds its way to the small town of Fillmore, which is simultaneously about to hold a really big beer festival and lose one of the two town doctors. The snake kills a few people. Experts are called in. It kills a few more people. Now I wouldn't want to ruin the end for you since its just like every other big monster movie so I'll just say that the doctor doesn't leave.
There is one scene in the movie that I really have to give the director/writers credit for. There is a scene that is entirely in Spanish without any subtitles. Now, I don't speak Spanish myself, but I wanted to laud the crew for daring to do this. I think it encourages people to be a little more multi-lingual plus throws a bone to the Spanish audience. I wish more films would do this occasionally. Of course, in this case the dialogue was completely incidental and wouldn't have mattered anyway. You'll know what I mean when you see it. I mean, come on. A couple of people swilling beer run out into the woods to have sex? You know they aren't going to live.
Erik Estrada has a completely inane and terrible cameo that seems like it was written in at the last second when they found out they could get him for a day. Pat Morita has a much larger role and is actually pretty good. As for the rest of the cast, I didn't recognize any of them. They all did a fair job though.
If you're a fan of the genre, you might find this one pleasant, otherwise, I'd recommend heading back to the slasher section since at least there'll be a little gore in those movies.