Alabama Snake

Alabama Snake is a tight-if extremely unbalanced-documentary that gets to the root of the bizarre and unsettling tale of Pentecostal preacher Glenn Summerford, accused of attempting to murder his wife using a rattlesnake. It gets across an eerie atmosphere in rural Alabama and the dark undercurrents of religious fanaticism throughout the narrative. The documentary does, at times, feel a bit disjointed; its pacing suffers from a lack of focus and coherence. The reenactments, while quite evocative, sometimes veer into melodrama and become a distraction from the really compelling real-life drama at the core. Even with its flaws, Alabama Snake is a haunting exploration of faith, fear, and the thin line between them.