My Two Favorite Monster Snake Movies

First, a note to blogger “Gideon:” Thank you for your comments. However, if you want me and others to be able to visit your blog, you must change the setting in your profile that keeps your profile private. You must set your profile to ‘sharable’ so that people can click on your name in the comment box and visit your blog.

*

My two favorite monster snake movies are “Python” and “Python 2.” They’re both very low budget, but really good fun.

I think what I like most about “Python” is that almost all of the monster snake scenes take place outdoors and in bright daylight. Most monster films arrange to have monster scenes take place at night. Directors and producers will say the darkness heightens the dramatic effect, but they really do it because night scenes let them cut corners on special effects. Darkness and shadows make cheap special effects look a little better.

“Python” simply throws caution to the wind. The special effects aren’t all world-class, but just seeing almost everything in bright daylight makes for something like the kind of excitement and fun of the old Ray Harryhausen movies when he did almost all his effects in ‘normal’ lighting situations.

“Python 2” is in many ways the opposite of “Python.” Where “Python” took place mostly outdoors in sunlight, almost all of “Python 2” takes place in a generic ‘underground military base.’ Most of the action is people running through corridors, running from shadow to shadow.

However “Python 2” has a beautiful Australian actress named Simmone Jade Mackinnon as the heroine. She’s very pretty and she plays the whole movie with a strange Russian accent that somehow manages to be both almost believable and almost cartoon-like at the same time. Watching—and listening to!—Mackinnon struggle with her boyfriend, CIA agents, a Russian soldier, two monster snakes and her odd Russian dialect makes for a very pleasant movie experience.

Neither of these films is, you know, cinema, but they’re both lots of fun and because they’re a few years old most rental places only charge a dollar or two to check out the DVDs.

*

Oh, by the way, this week Friday will be my 500th post. Today is post #497.