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Bill Longley
arrives in a small western town to warn
them about a swarm of killer copperheads that's headed
their way, only to run into some trouble with some
locals who are up to no good. Soon enough the town
is overrun by the snakes and everyone has to fight
together in order to survive, but not everyone is happy
with the plan to work together.
Copperhead is exactly the kind of movie that we want
to see on the Sci-Fi channel but rarely do. It's got
a good pace, it's got some decent CGI effects and it's
got an entertaining story. Leaving the army-fights-off-
evil-creatures concept behind them, the Sci-Fi channel
moves onto the wild western where a swarm of killer
snakes are just about to attack a small community.
Normally this would mean lots of flaws and factual
errors but everything about this movie felt really
thought-through. There was actually a sense of logic
in this film and no matter how campy it may be, I bought
most of it - and that's quite rare with creature features.
Most DTV creature features these days are shot in
Bulgaria due to budget reasons and for the first time
they've actually let a Bulgarian guy direct the movie.
Good move. Todor Chapkanov has been the assistant
director for such crap as Boa vs. Python, Lake Placid 2,
Return to House On Haunted Hill and more. No wonder he
was so eager to show everyone that he actually knows
something about movie-making, no matter what's on his
resume. For once it actually felt as if someone had
cared about a Sci-Fi original. The actors gave strong
performances, the pace was just perfect and the story
was built up in a surprisingly clever manor.
By now I think most of us know how difficult it is to
make a decent creature feature - seeing as how most
of the ones being released these days are absolute
rubbish - and that's why we have to take whatever we
can get when something decent comes along. Copperhead
is certainly a very forgettable horror film but
nevertheless, it's also very entertaining and will
definitely keep you interested until the very last
frame. Something which is more than can be said for
most recent creature features. In the end, it was a
very nice surprise for me and if you're a fan of
killer snake flicks, I will certainly have to recommend
it. It might not be very gory, but it's better than
one would expect.
Not much here.
Typical western soundtrack.
While Copperhead certainly isn't anything special, it's
not something we see everyday - it's an entertaining
creature feature with an interesting story-line. For
those reasons alone I think this one is worth a spin
in your DVD-player. Hopefully Anaconda 3 will be as
enjoyable, but I highly doubt it.
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