‘Beware Boiúna’ Review: Dude, Where’s My Snake?
During Fantastic Fest 2026, the entrance pathway to the South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse was decorated with a giant gaping snake mouth for Mike P. Nelson’s (Silent Night, Deadly Night) coveted creature feature, Beware Boiúna. You could see it at all times, and given its enormous height and beauty, one would think the movie would let you see this carnivorous snake diva in her divine glory. Give me mama Boiúna or give me death! Alas, one cannot see the big snake Boiúna in her own film, which makes an already mediocre film an even bigger letdown.
MPA Rating: R (for bloody violent content, some grisly images, and language.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 44 Minutes
Language: English, Portuguese
Production Companies: Constantin Film, JB Pictures
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Mike P. Nelson
Screenwriter: Alan McElroy
Cast: Kiana Madeira, Jessica Rothe, Logan Marshall-Green, Jackson Bews, Juan Pablo Shuk, Vicente Peña, Will Close
U.S Release Date: October 2, 2026
Deep in the Amazon rainforest, a humanitarian team — Miguel (Juan Pablo Shuk), his underling Alli (Jessica Rothe), and Callum (Will Close) — helps people in need on a ship led by Raúl (Jaime Newball) and his daughter Lena (Kiana Madeira). While the medical team is saving lives, Lena searches for her brother, who disappeared without a trace. The team runs into brothers Brennan (Logan Marshall-Green) and Shawn Malloy (Jackson Bews), who are scheming to exploit the land’s resources. When a drunken Shawn tries to forcibly assault Alli, she and Lena accidentally kill him, enraging Brennan. The following string of events, with Brennan pursuing the team out of sheer revenge, leads them to an outpost where they encounter Boiúna. The mythical giant snake’s name translates to “mother of rivers,” and she “chooses who lives and who dies.” In Boiúna’s domain, the film becomes a free-for-all as everyone tries their best to survive.
Boiúna buries its biggest attraction under a mountain of human drama.
For a movie about people avoiding a big snake, Boiúna has a severe lack of said big snake. The first hour or so of the film (penned by Alan B. McElroy, on a story by Mike P. Nelson and Tony Giglio) follows a frenetic rigmarole of medical operatives, Lena’s subplot, and Brennan Malloy’s revenge attempt. For all intents and purposes, this should’ve been a slightly campy creature feature with a ‘90s edge akin to Anaconda and Deep Blue Sea. Its self-seriousness it takes itself diminishes any sense of genuine thrills. Albeit somewhat ambitious for being straight-laced throughout, the weak writing doesn’t measure up to the misstep in tone.
I like when a creature feature says, “Your petty squabbles don’t mean shit when you’re among nature.” But to its discredit, we have to suffer watching endless, dull human squabbles that’ll make even the human stuff in the Monster-Verse flicks look like Shakespearean plays.
Most of the characters are either underwritten or uninteresting, despite the central leads — Rothe, Madeira, and Marshall-Green — being alright. The interesting concepts in the story that tee up Alli and Lena’s heroine-driven dynamic are largely abandoned the moment it gets to the titular snake’s domain. Respectfully, it impresses with an ambitious bait-and-switch turning point that allows an unsuspecting dynamic and a well-meaning theme of indigenous significance. But because you know it’s written by a trio of white bois, it’s not as damning in its anti-colonialism aspect, with the shady Brennan Malloy character positioned as a “he’s a bad guy but not a bad guy” gimmick.
Let me see Big Snake you cowards.
When a slew of survivors settle on the island and nature becomes the dominant threat, the film provides a handful of thrills. And by “handful” I mean about one. You see it in the trailer and promotional materials; Lena’s in the tar pit, struggling to escape while Boiúna slithers around her.
The buck stops there, for most of its set pieces are dimly lit, and the film refuses to show the snake in all her might. All the bloody violent kills she delivers occur in the dark, and you can’t get a real sense of what’s happening on screen. For a Lionsgate major release with a major Fantastic Fest presence, it comes across as cheap and pathetic, like a bargain-bin Walgreens movie escaped and rolled its way to a Lionsgate exec and he said, “Yeah, sure this’ll do.” Its action-spectacle climactic sequence involving a construction battleground, grapple truck, and a chainsaw (a little bit of Evil Dead meets Aliens), would be fun in concept if it wasn’t filmed like a visually impaired person traversing the dark without their glasses. It’s funny because this could’ve been a better Anaconda reboot in terms of tone and conceptually grisly kills. If only Tom Gormican had directed Beware Boiúna. Say what you will about his Anaconda comedy, but at least you could see the titular creature.
I’ve already forgotten Beware Boiúna besides being frustrated about the lack of Big Snake. If you see it at home, you'd better turn that brightness all the way up. Perhaps then you could see Big Snake, but otherwise, it’s not a film worth slithering to the theater for.
It’s hard to look forward to Nelson potentially helming the next Saw installment because, lord knows, he won’t let viewers see the bloody traps. Boiúna diva, I’m sorry I wasn’t your filmmaker, but you’ll always be mother.
