Silent Venom (2009) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

U.S. 2008
Director: Fred Olen Ray
Cast: Krista Allen, Luke Perry, Tom Berenger, Anthony Tyler Quinn, Louis Mandylor
Release Date: 2009
Rating: -
Running Time: 1 hour 26 mins 28 secs

The Movie Review

Silent Venom film still 1


SILENT VENOM
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

I've just recently written a review for a lousy movie before, Anacondas: Trail of Blood, and I just don't feel right about it. Not that I regret having it reviewed but because it's belong to one of my favorite sub genre, the nature-gone-wild horror flick. Subjectively speaking, this type of film is always nice to see it on lazy evening, to feel a bit of thrill but without having to be shocked greatly. And back then, I was so happy to catch any of those movies on TV, but of course, the good ones that is. And so I hunted for another movie of this genre to make up for the previous snake flick, and how I happy I was to find a snake movie which starred by Krista Allen! And to add to my excitement, it was also directed by Fred Olen Ray a.k.a the King of fun cheesy T&A cinema and truly male-demographic motion pictures. I popped in the video with fair expectation and man I still felt tricked!

But before I start to complain about it, let's just take a look on the storyline. It's very simple, on an island called Manku in East China Sea, two scientists are doing an experiment involving venomous snake for the sake of U.S. military operation. They are Dr. Andrea Swanson (Krista Allen) and her assistant Jake Goldin (Louis Mandylor). However, the Chinese military are closing in and the U.S. government is concern that if they found out about this research, it would cause unwanted international incident. And so the almost-retired Lt. Comdr. James O'Neill (Luke Perry), with his submarine the U.S.S. Santa Mira, is sent in to pick up those scientists and take them to safety.

However, when Dr. Swanson and Jake are on board, the greedy Jake takes along 20 highly-venomous snakes and the 2 big ones in the container, which is opposed to Dr. Swanson's order. Unfortunately, one of the corpsmen is anxious to know and he eventually lets the snakes venture the sub. And now they are trapped underwater with lotsa snakes on board and are also facing the immediate danger of the Chinese naval. How do they suppose to deal with these problems? Will they survive?

Watching a creature feature like this one here, it is better if you don't have high expectation or expect it to be flashy like Snakes on a Plane. I just hoped that I would have some cheesy fun time. And Fred Olen Ray has directed a snake movie before in 2001 called Venomous, surely I expect Silent Venom to be better, but it's not. Why? Because the execution of the idea of trapping people with snakes inside a submarine is far from being exciting. It's boring! Boring to see all the pipes and the grey overall tones of the Sub's interior. It's not claustrophobic, it's simply dull. Had only they just shot the movie on the island, because on the contrary with the Sub, the Island is beautiful in the sunny day, clear blue skies and calm breeze. If only they make a chasing scene there, though I know that this concept is not new but it's better than trying to make a clone of Snake on a Plane.

And what a waste of beauty that Krista Allen didn't perform "bravely" the way she had done in her early movies. But it's still amazing though that her charm and her sweet smile is one of very few things that save the whole running length. But this movie would be entirely colourless without the antagonist, the jerk and also the comic-relief Jake Goldin who is played very well by Louis Mandylor. However those aspects still could not save the film from its boring storyline and very fake looking CGI Snakes.

And to conclude this review, do not watch this. Even Krista Allen's appearance was underused (very underused, no nudity here guys). And had only the filmmakers chosen the Island over the Submarine, it would've been at least more colourful. It's a shame that Fred Olen Ray's earlier snake film is better than his latest one.