Beware Boiúna (2026)
Directed by: Mike P. Nelson
Premise: Set in the Amazon, a team of doctors have an altercation with gold speculators. Deep in the jungle they encounter a giant snake.
What Works: Beware Boiúna is a well-made animal attack picture. Like a lot of giant snake movies, Beware Boiúna is set in the Amazon but this film is in touch with the politics of that part of the world. The story centers on aid workers who run afoul of precious metal prospectors. In the film and in reality, gold miners have a history of incursions into protected areas of the Amazon. Beware Boiúna is not a political screed but its acknowledgement of the gold mining issue makes this a more interesting creature feature. The filmmaking of Beware Boiúna creates a messy and organic texture. Everything feels hot and damp. The moviemakers emphasize the bugs and the dirt and the general difficulty of life in the Amazon. The giant snake in convincing and scary but the real threat is the environment. Everything is dangerous. The characters are under constant threat and these people feel real. They have some depth and complexity. There is a palpable sense of danger throughout the movie. The filmmakers are not precious with their characters and some of the deaths are shocking. The mix of brutal violence and human interest makes this an exciting animal attack movie and the second half is especially well paced and scary.
What Doesn’t: Beware Boiúna is essentially the same story as a lot of other giant snake films, namely the Anaconda series. This is a common challenge in the animal attack genre. There are a limited number of ways to put human beings and certain animals into conflict. That’s why nearly every shark movie resembles Jaws. Beware Boiúna is very similar to the Anaconda films but Beware Boiúna is also better than other killer snake movies. One of Beware Boiúna’s key stylistic choices has mixed results. The filmmakers hold back on revealing the snake. Much like the shark in Jaws, the snake of Beware Boiúna is mostly suggested or shown in part or at a distance. This is generally effective but in the end the filmmakers err on showing too little of the snake. Jaws manipulated viewers into thinking they had seen more of the shark than they actually did. Beware Boiúna leaves us thinking we never really saw the snake and some of the final action set pieces are hard to follow.
Bottom Line: Beware Boiúna is a thrilling animal attack picture. While it is fundamentally the same as a lot of other killer snake movies, Beware Boiúna is a well-made film that is scary and exciting.
Episode: #1121 (October 18, 2026)