A canoe trip down the Chattahoochee river, sees four friends run afoul hillbilly carnies and their giant pet snake.

Prolific UK horror enthusiast Charlie Steeds (Dark Temple Motion Pictures) heads stateside for a reptilian creature feature. With a modest budget, Snake Creek leans hard enough into its campy trappings that the tension never really builds - but its an earnest effort that is not without its charms. The snake - whose head is mainly erect at an awkward angle - is delightful, and I would happily watch the prop salivate on a dozen more stranded tourists...... and may yet, as Steed has two more snake pictures in the works.

The warts? Our four friends seem to have a decade between…

I think we would all agree that Deliverance would have been even better if it featured a giant killer snake. Busy UK horror writer/director Charlie Steeds feels the same way and journeyed to the US to make Snake Creek. It follows four hapless city boys who head out for a canoe trip down the Chattahoochee River. Soon the bros run afoul of both giant killer snake Gwendy and demented old coot Woody (Steeds regular Scot Scurlock, a master of old cootdom) and his vicious, cackling redneck pals. If you hate CGI effects you should love Gwendy, a 100% practical creation that seems very low tech but does drool venom (or maybe just drool) when she bares her fangs. Once things…

I hit my target of watching 400 films last year and I think one of the the best things about the experience was discovering the films of Charlie Steeds - I applaud his commitment to practical effects, especially when budgets are tight. 

Snake Creek is the first part of his big snake trilogy filmed on location in Georgia, USA. This is also the first Steeds film that I have seen with such a prominent original score, which plays throughout the entire runtime, echoing the action onscreen. It’s clear that the quality of the films is increasing with time and I am really liking the remote 70s vibes of Charlie’s recent films. 

The story here is simple and the film is…

Went into Snake Creek expecting the usual monster chaos: questionable CGI, a few wooden actors, and at least one scene where someone trips while running from a clearly visible threat.

What I got instead was… honestly impressive, in the worst possible way.

This film manages to make a giant snake feel about as threatening as a soggy pool noodle. The creature design looks like it was rendered on a microwave, and not even a powerful one, more like the one in the church kitchen that takes three minutes to heat tea.

The acting? Imagine if everyone auditioned for a completely different film and nobody told them. Half the cast behaves like they’re in a daytime soap, the other half like…