Cover Art

Credits

Director: Bill Corcoran Starring: Tara Reid, Jonathan Scarfe, Aaron Pearl, Claire Rankin, Don S. Davis, Genevieve Buechner, Corbin Bernsen, Mercedes McNab Screenplay: Brian Katkin Country: USA/Canada

External Links

The all important back-story is established in the opening scenes - a shady bio-tech company has made a major breakthrough in the treatment of breast cancer at its high tech research facility by tinkering with the genetic structure of the deadly Horned Viper snake, and wouldn't you know it – said research involves making the snakes faster, hungrier, and more venomous!

Naturally, with those nuggets of info out of the way events that see the facility's containment measures breached quickly transpire – in this case a botched robbery attempt - and with the vipers freed from their laboratory confines they quickly slither on down to nearby Eden Cove, an isolated island community with no cell phone coverage but a well stocked collection of residents just ripe for the snacking. Without further ado the rapidly multiplying hordes of reptiles begin tucking in to the town's human buffet, and it's up to the newly arrived Doctor (Jonathan Scarfe) and a local horticulturist of sorts (Tara Reid) to round up the quickly dwindling population and fend off the scaly interlopers until those friendly bio-tech researchers are able to show up and save the day. Or kill everyone in town to ensure the vipers can spread no further. Either way, people will die, which is always a good thing.

Vipers really should have been a tongue-in-cheek cheese-o-rama, but unfortunately the film rarely has a sense of its own absurdity and is played out like some sort of melodramatic soap opera instead. While things do move along at a steady pace and the snake attacks occur at regular intervals, we are forced to spend far too much time with the characters in-between the bursts of mayhem as they mourn the death of close friends, or dredge up unpleasant memories from their pasts, or babble shit simply for the sake of babbling shit. Can you say padding? The script is saddled with far too much sappy filler material, and the abundance of overly emotional character moments seemed hopelessly out of place in what was, presumably, supposed to be a creature feature.

The pedestrian screenplay isn't made any more palatable by a collection of half-assed acting performances either, and I doubt anyone will be surprised to hear that Tara Reid is among the offenders. Reid actually showed some ability in earlier films like The Big Lebowski, Urban Legend and yes, even American Pie, and for a while I rated her quite highly as a sexpot, but here she shows no interest in her craft and hides her over-partied bod behind several layers of winter clothing for the entire movie (bare flesh enthusiasts be warned – she even wears one of those giant knitted beanies that covers her ears!). Luckily for her though no on else seemed to care much either, so her awfulness doesn't particularly stand out. The late Don S. Davis, best know for his role in the Stargate TV series, is one of the few performers to add any sort of credibility to the flick, and while a smattering of recognizable faces do pop up, including semi-regular Buffy cast member Mercedes McNab and Corbin Bernsen, they are given little to work with.

The snake attack sequences themselves actually aren't too bad. Despite some very crappy CGI that makes the snakes look like slithering blobs of gas the blood and gore is splashed around generously, with the Vipers' appetites resembling those of your average Fulci zombie! These guys don't just dart in for a quick bite – they stick around and tear chunks of flesh from bodies, and in some cases devour their victims completely – bones and all. Don't go expecting any white knuckle tension though as the snakes aren't the least bit convincing, or scary, and a great deal of the splatter is also computer generated, which lessens its impact.

If nothing else Vipers might be one of the goriest killer snake movies ever made, however, adequate as they may be the snake attacks simply aren't enough to make Vipers worth recommending. Despite the fact that the scale of the flick is slightly larger than your average made-for-cable jaunt it still looks like an awfully cheap production, and the bad acting and clunky scripting – along with a few painfully contrived romantic moments between Reid's character and the heroic Doc, who have zero chemistry together - quickly manage to negate whatever entertainment value the film may sporadically deliver. With its tongue planted firmly in its cheek and Reid throwing out a line or two about "Motherfuckin snakes!" with a sly wink this could have been hilarious, but sadly Vipers frequently forgets what genre it's in and serves up too much ham with not nearly enough cheese.