Rattlesnake

Can't say I had exactly high hopes for this, but it's even more disappointing coming from the director whose previous movie (also a Netflix original) was the decent and effortful "1922". "Rattlesnake" knows exactly what it is, but it doesn't try to excel at it at all.

For the most part "Rattlesnake" feels like an uninspiring slow-burn, a familiar tale of a familiar dilemma explored only vaguely as if the filmmakers behind this were uninvested and half asleep. You know when you start cleaning up your room but give up halfway through? That's how "Rattlesnake" felt like. Some of the qualities include a good main performance by Carmen Ejogo (who tries her best while portraying a character in search of any real personality), a story that holds potential (but instead chooses the uninventive, watered down approach) arguably good cinematography (which kinda wears down with time by just not changing, impressing, surprising) & an original score that goes from seemingly effective to either repetitive or feeling like it's been wasted on this movie. Both the script and the direction is bland and comes off as simply not very smart. The pacing's very even throughout and also very slow, it doesn't quite pick up at the end either.

I believe "Rattlesnake" is a fine friday flick, but I can't put this anywhere above average, because in the end it feels more like just another filler for the mass market of movies on digital media than it feels like a sophisticated, well crafted and entertaining thriller/horror movie. My rating: 5/10.

A lot of low budget horror movies end up just like RATTLESNAKE. They stretch the story and the viewer's patience as best they can to reach that full feature length when they really should have remained a leaner 30-minute short in a horror anthology of sorts. There's a pretty good set-up that winds up spinning its wheels for 50 minutes or so until it reaches its underwhelming finale. You barely get to know the main characters or the evil behind the driving force of the story. Hildiitch's adaptation of SK's 1922 for Netflix got a boost from an almost unrecognizable Thomas Jane in the lead. Ejogo's performance feels, for lack of a better work, lacking. While I didn't hate what I was viewing, I sure didn't like checking my watch every 5 minutes either.

Rattlesnake has a great concept. A women gets a puncture and while fixing it her daughter gets bitten by a rattlesnake. Suddenly a trailer appeared and a women cures the bite and says she will talk about payment later. Payment it turns out is she must replace her life with the life of another or her daughter will die as payment has not been met.

So the concept is great, any artform which makes you think what would I do and helps you empathise with the characters is usually on to s winner but that's where it starts to be let down. It's right here where some amazing philosophical debates could start to begin. Could you find someone evil and feel ok about killing them when there is an opportunity that this person could change in the future and positively impact others? Is it right you should take the life of another when fatalists and people of religion may say you are going against god's plan. Or is it ok to take the life of someone seriously ill when there may be opportunity of miraculous recovery you are taking away. All these a brilliant film would make but it doesn't explore or question the situation at all, there is only acceptense. It's a shame really, opportunity lost.

I've sat through a lot worse. Movie really didn't go anywhere. Was decent background noise with minimal story line. I guess if you can't find anything else to watch give it a shot.

Its not bad. Decently paced thriller keeps you watching as there's so many variations of what could happen next it keeps you guessing. Atmosphere is pretty good and the lead actress does a good job. Don't get me wrong there is no Oscar winners here but for an hour and a half at home with your feet up it will keep you entertained.