Basilisk: The Serpent King

Another B-movie effort from Sci Fi Pictures, shot in Bulgaria on the cheap and featuring cult favourite (?) Jason London in the lead alongside Yancy Butler (HARD TARGET) as a baddie for a change. This one sees an archaeologist bringing back a basilisk statue from the Middle East, but it shortly revives and goes on the rampage in a museum. Plenty of cheesy action and death ensue, and it's all completely ridiculous, mannered and over the top. But at least it's not boring.

A long time ago in 112 A.D. Cyrenaica, during an eclipse, a giant snake-like creature wakes up and attacks a group of men. This is "Basilisk: The Serpent King" and he is angry. Basilisk spits out a long stream of white stuff, which turns people into stone. Two thousand years later, in present day Libya, a team of archaeologists led by steadfast Jeremy London (as Harrison "Harry" McColl) dig around in the same area. Watch out! They discover some artifacts which will lead to the return of Basilisk, but not quite yet...

Two months later, in Pueblo Springs, Colorado, Mr. London meets attractive blonde archaeologist Wendy Carter (as Rachel Donegal). He really digs her, even with sexy Yancy Butler (as Hannah) hanging out. They are at an archaeological event during an eclipse when, like the first one, Basilisk wakes up. This time, he seems even angrier. And, with good reason. According to geeky scientist Griff Furst (as Rudy), "Basilisk: The Serpent King" is pregnant. If the snake king isn't destroyed, there will be 18-20 more...

Yikes!

*** Basilisk: The Serpent King (11/25/06) Stephen Furst ~ Jeremy London, Wendy Carter, Griff Furst, Yancy Butler

Basilisk wasn't as bad as some of the other Saturday night Sci-fi Channel offerings. The majority of the budget was obviously spent on CGs. While there were scenes where the CG effects weren't great, there were others that it was.

My big complaint about these movies are little details. These movies are filmed in Eastern Europe, where the buck can be stretched further than in the states. That's fine, but at least if you're depicting the U.S. military, use American-issued weapons, not weapons fixed to look like them. Would it be too hard to scrounge up some decent-looking M-16s?

BASILISK is your standard giant unkillable snake movie with one difference: two recognizable actors keep things moving along when the focus is not on the so-so CGI snake. Stealing its basic plot from KING KONG, the movie has some adventurers bringing back from ancient lands an artifact, which comes to life in front of a very large audience, and proceeds to kills a ton of people. The Army cannot seem to stop it. Jeremy London and Yancy Butler costar, and the lovely Ms. Butler gets to play a comic villain for a change. London is always easy to take, and handles the dumb dialogue with just the right amount of tongue in cheek fervor. He is given lines like "Come back here with that scepter!" Both get a fair share of screen time, which helps keep the focus away from the monster, which is absolutely dumb-looking. It's a snake with a dragon's head, if you care to know. Mildly entertaining. Shot in -- where else? -- eastern Europe. You will know immediately;y it ain't New York, L.A., Toronto or Vancouver. It's just too strange-looking to be on U.S. soil. Have a beer or three and enjoy. Especialyl enjoy Ms. Butler, who runs around in a tight little red dress and looks terrific.

Opening scene mayhem introduces a formidable beast, a serpent with spiritual vengefulness. It can petrify victims to stone in Medusan fashion, and it can swat you like a fly too. Odd that it has Greek Mythological power, since it's lurking in the Mid-East desert. Treasure hunters and a full moon unleash the giant serpent to emerge and wreak more destruction.

Promising start, but after that initial scene, this film decides it's a junior high school production, and degenerates into unbridled silliness. When the creature is unleashed, does it utilize its horrifying powers for a grandiose or symbolic attack? Like other monsters would? No, it just tears up a museum and a shopping mall. It also wipes out a bunch of "soldiers" who look like they trained for combat by playing war games with GI Joe dolls.

The acting is painfully bad. Somebody recites a line loudly, and then pauses expectantly, as if waiting for a laugh track to be inserted. It reminded me of one of those tween sit-coms on Disney channel. The archaeologist guy (a Robert Downey look-like) wanders around with a pie-eyed gaping expression. He makes dumb quips, and he just looks weird. There's a stock nerdy geek, who has neon-yellow bleached hair and horn-rimmed glasses. The female love interest looks like she's going to laugh hysterically at any moment.

The red-dress greedy rich femme-fatale wannabe girl deserves special recognition. Her tough vamp routine looks more like a shampoo commercial. She runs around with a big heavy gold staff, looking like she's going to trip over her stiletto heels any moment. One guess on how shampoo vamp ends up. And it'll seem way over due.

About as scary as a Care Bears cartoon. For its unintentional humor, it's good for a couple of laughs.