After traveling to a remote village, a group of passengers and other travelers get stranded by a vicious series of snake attacks forcing them to venture into a sacred part of the forest to find a cure but are confronted by scores of threats on the way to securing a way of stopping the massive snake.
This was a really solid and likable feature. Among the better features here is the rather impressive means through which this one manages to employ its series of storylines together into a thrilling narrative. The initial setup with the film offers up the kind of mega-monster-sized thrills with the arrival of the snake into the village and the ensuing quest to find the antidote needed to save everyone provides a solid and worthwhile storyline that works nicely here. This allows for the kind of simplistic setup where you get the introduction to the various characters and their sidestories where the convergent love-triangle that emerges and the different motivations each of the villagers that go along for the journey where everything comes together quite well in giving the kind of fun setup for the human drama alongside platform for the creature action around it. That comes out into the other strong factor with the film's immensely strong snake action. The opening assault on the train is absolutely glorious, involving the train being overrun by the creatures pouring into the stopped train and causing panic and chaos where the surviving members of the group band together to get away from the ravenous smaller creatures and the massive big one coming after them. This sets the stage too well for what's to come, as the jungle encounters aren't anywhere close to this despite the spider ambush or the river encounter which are somewhat fun even if they can't compare to the opening. A return to the full-scale action in the finale is quite fun where the underground caverns are used to house some fun encounters featuring the race to get out of the creature's lair which has some great action and above-average creature effects to give this a lot to like about it. There are a few small drawbacks to be had with this one. The biggest drawback here is the rather obvious change away from the snakes as the main threat into the human villains that plague the storyline. It's quite distressing how the film keeps introducing new threats to keep the snake away from the main storyline and have the group deal with the new threat in the pervert living in the jungle, the medicine man working out in the jungle, and the reformed member of the expedition which is all wholly unnecessary. There's no need to keep introducing this kind of stalling in the storyline which is all at the expense of keeping the snake mostly off-screen until the finale as the bookended scenes featuring the creature are its only appearances. As well, there's also the formulaic jungle-adventure scenario this turns into along the way which is a bit underwhelming due to how it all plays out being the main issues here holding it back.
Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.
