Customer Reviews

Snakehead Terror

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This has been on the Sci Fi channel a number of times and each time that I watch it I find it hilarious. The producers of the film took a real story from Maryland and created this incredible, over the top movie which in my mind is a parody of actual events. How you can change a sub division retention pond into a mountain lake, the bad guys transporting containers marked HGH (Human Growth Hormones) in huge letters (seemed they were getting the institutional size from Sam's Club) and the complete lack of knowledge exibited by the script writers concerning, biology, geography and fisheries is so horrible that it is funny. And the characters, you have Bruce Boxleitner as the sheriff, and Carol Alt as the fisheries biologist (very striking in her hip boots and her big electric gun (used to combat the northern pike invasion in another body of water). The movie is very entertaining but has absolutely no basis in reality. I probably will purchase this when the price comes down under $10.

With a disaster for a script and a reality factor close to zero, Snakehead Terror (2004) entertains mostly because it is so terribly written, and deliciously stupid. There's tons of messy gore, and a high body count, as the community around Cultus Lake, in British Columbia, has to deal with the presence of a horde of giant carnivorous snakehead fish.

When human remains are found in the lake, biologist Lori Dale (Carol Alt) is sent to help local Sheriff Patrick James (Bruce Boxleitner) in his investigation. She identifies the cause as some kind of snakehead fish. After her boyfriend is killed by a school of the killer fish, Amber (Chelan Simmons) the Sheriff's daughter, bands together with some of her friends to avenge his death, taking to the lake in a small boat, armed and prepared to kill. This group's misadventures are probably the highlight of the film, as almost everything they do results in disaster and death. Working with Lori, Sheriff James eventually discovers that the illegal dumping of human growth hormone (which apparently also does wonders for snakehead) is responsible for the giant fish, which also have the ability to crawl and travel on land.

The CG special effects for this Sci Fi production are often spotty, but there are plenty of bloody practical effects as people are chomped on, and tons of fish are shot up, or butched with an axe. The film is a comedy of errors, and the slapstick parade concludes with a ridiculously over the top fish fry at the lake. This is one of the few Sci Fi Channel efforts where the `so bad it's good' tag does fit, making Snakehead Terror worth at least a look when it appears on the Sy Fy schedule.

You've probably heard of the incident with the Northern Snakehead (Channa argus), an aggressive fish that can breathe air and walk on land. An invasive species, the snakehead was nicknamed "frankenfish" by the media and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. In 2008 the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation poisoned Ridgebury Lake, New York with CFT Legumine, a liquid rotenone formulation, to kill it off.

The Northern Snakehead can grow up to 33 inches long and weigh up to 15 pounds. This is not to be confused with the Giant Snakehead (Channa micropeltes) which can grow over three feet long and weigh up to 40 pounds. There are rumors, unsubstantiated, that the Giant Snakehead killed a child in Thailand.

Sometimes, reality writes the monster movie for you. Conflate the two types of fish, exaggerate their threat in the States, and add a pinch of healthy dose of human growth hormone and VOILA! You have Snakehead Terror.

Snakehead Terror, unlike Frankenfish, starts small. The titular snakeheads are large but not abnormally so - micropeltes size - and with each successive scene they get larger and larger. This gets ridiculous by the end of the film when a whale-sized snakehead crests in the middle of the lake.

Bruce Boxleitner is the sheriff. I don't need to give him a name, because a quick scan of IMDB indicates that good ole Boxleitner is ALWAYS the sheriff: Bone Eater, Sharpshooter, Legion of the Dead, and even Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone. He's starting to repeat himself in more ways than one. Like in Bone Eater, the sheriff has difficulties with his daughter (Amber, played by Chelan Simmons) getting mixed up with a boy (Luke, played by Ryan McDonell) he doesn't like - which guarantees that she will be threatened by the featured monster.

And so we have the two-plot solution to monster movies: authority figures over what to do next while stupid teenagers swim in the monster's hunting ground. In a clever twist on the usual Jaws-theme, news of the people-gobbling snakeheads actually draws more fishermen to the lake looking for a trophy.

What's surprising is how mundane Snakehead Terror is about its fish. It's a bog-standard (or is that lake-standard?) fish attack movie. With the exception of an attack on a house, most of the time the fish are just swimming around eating people.

Snakehead Terror tries to appeal to gore-hounds and spends more time playing up the horror of being eaten by fish (which isn't all that horrifying) and less on the actual fish attacks, which happens largely off-screen because the fish are in murky water. The movie gives up on its ripped-from-the-headlines sensibilities and decides to go over the top midway through, but it's too little, too late. Piranhas, barracudas, whatever - if it's in the water and jumps out to eat you it's all pretty much the same fish story. Frankenfish, which embraces the insanity of it all, is much more entertaining.

During Sid's OctoberGreatSuccess seemed like time, probably the only time, to revisit a genre that we used to love between the time of 1999 til roughly 2003. This genre was of the over-sized creature variety which caught our attention with King Cobra featuring Karate Kid stud Mr Miyagi back in 99. It was something like the black and whites type films of the 50's only with much worse acting, way more drunk teens, and a significant increase in the nudity department, which obviously we loved. From there we enjoyed flicks like Python, Crocodile, and Raptor island to name a few, until we simply tired the genre out within a few short years. For a while they were the tops but faded as quickly as they started up. From that point on Sid has never found any desire to revisit this type of film until Snakehead Terror was on t.v with absolutely nothing to do.

Much like every other film in the genre, a small town is taken over by a giant blood-thirsty creature/creatures in this case being a snake fish type deal. It starts out with a bunch of wasted kids going "crazy crazy" at their local Maryland lake to watch a friend get eaten by one of these creatures. Obviously the next step is for the police and some world renowned biologists to get involved. Once they do is when the boredom set's in. It's always the same dialogue making you wonder if they just keep reusing the same script just making some white out changes every couple pages. So after the midway lull you get to a little more creature action which always provides a few laughs. That's about it folks. It's the run of the mill creature feature but deserved 3 stars for bringing back a little sentimental value. Not something the old boy could recommend unless you have nothing to do and see it's on the tube. Then kick back (best viewed with your choice of substance) and enjoy some very cheap laughs courtesy of awful acting and hilarious special effects.

this movie is good it has
gore,creature violence,
explosions,guns.and the
most important thing a
happy ending.so do only
good reviews please.

I love science fiction movies. Man vs. the unknown or man vs. man's tampering mistakes. Then man has to undo the error. They are real exciting!!!