“Anaconda” (1997) is the first in a franchise that consists of seven movies, which includes two reboots, one Chinese film in 2024 and one US production released in 2025. While working on the Black River in Brazil, a documentary film crew rescues a snake poacher with a sinister agenda: to capture a full-size anaconda no matter what it takes. While the acting is uneven, the special and practical effects are shaky, and the story is over the top, it still adds up to a timeless horror classic that is more fun than the most recent, verging on soulless reboot.
The cast is stacked. Jon Voight steals the show as Paraguyan Paul Serone. Voight is so over the top as the obviously sinister Paul Serone who easily manipulates most of his rescuers into falling for his tricks so he can get what he wants. It is easy to imagine a history for this dangerous man though one is not provided: German Nazis fled to Paraguay, and this guy is the natural product as their offspring. Serone gets into a dick measuring contest with Dr. Steven Cale (Eric Stoltz), the anthropologist bankrolling the expedition to look for a lost tribe of indigenous people, and the result of their conflict distracts director Terri Flores (a baby faced JLo), the real boss, from challenging Serone from getting everyone accustomed to him taking over the boat and accepting his orders. He appeals to the film’s effete narrator, Brit Warren Westridge (Australian Jonathan Hyde), and Gary Dixon (a young Owen Wilson), the sound guy, as the natural leader who will protect them. Serone and Mateo (Vincent Castellanos), the ship’s captain, obviously know each other. Only Danny Rich (Ice Cube, one of the early Black men rappers to survive horror movies, which includes LL Cool J) is suspicious of everyone and accepts Terri’s leadership since they are film school friends. Production manager, Denise Kalberg (Kari Wuhrer), is more focused on her relationship and the conditions to recognize the threat until it is too late. At the beginning, a baby-faced Danny Trejo makes a cameo. None of the actors were going to win Oscars for their performances, and some are downright bad at their jobs, but the overall effect is a net positive.
The Anaconda (Frank Welker) is suitably terrifying despite the technology’s limitations of that time, which is still better than the literally toothless 2025 version. This one has personality. Welker’s scream ranks it right up there with the aliens screaming in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978). When Serone tries to bait it with a little monkey, it spits the monkey out in one of the Serone sympathizers’ faces as if disgusted and chooses the other complicit mutineer for its first onscreen meal. Peruvian director Luis Llosa knows what we need, a scary snake, and delivers. There are shots from inside the belly of the beast, which feels like it influenced Jordan Peele’s “Nope” (2022). Showing the snake’s perspective seemed very similar to “Jaws” (1975).
Writers Hans Bauer, Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr. and the uncredited Mark Haskell Smith frame Serone as a human snake in the way that he slithers into the camp, relishes hijacking the crew’s hearts and minds and conscripts the unconverted into becoming unwilling members of his crew. More importantly, the team of writers understood that moviegoers want catharsis and give it in the denouement, which drags a bit but is well worth the wait. Both are like god symbols.
In the beginning of the 2025 movie, it shows Brazil’s famous giant Jesus statue, Cristo Redentor, to geographically orient the audience. This film opens with a man clinging to a crosslike figure on the top of his boat with a light on top. In this movie, the people are sacrificed to the gods, not the gods or the leaders sacrificing themselves for the people. In the 1997 film, snakes are the only gods, but only offer death, not redemption. Similarly, Serone prays, but only after someone dies usually as the direct or indirect result of his decisions. Religion is framed as deadly and antithetical to life. Serone’s real faith is in profit, not people. It is one of many systems that traps these people in a world of their own design.
“Anaconda” may seem like another dumb movie, but it outpaces the 2025 film in terms of its subtext and is downright prophetic. Mateo’s overt obedience to the stated mission is undercut when he refers to Terri as chefe, highlighting that she is a woman boss and adds a bit of sarcasm to his execution of orders. His real boss is Serone. The entire movie is about how the guys struggle for power against each other while Terri stays back, does not embrace her role as a leader and prefers to defer to them. Then the women get distracted when their partners are no longer playing an active role, attempt to retreat and adhere to social norms and abandon their hard-won leadership roles. When they realize the real source of their problems and are forced to confront the reality that no one will save them except themselves, and if they work together, it is harder to wrest control back from Serone, especially after two people who are supposed to be their allies chooses him because they see him as the strong mean who will protect them.
Isn’t this lesson applicable to all the countries suffering from an attraction to fascist leadership styles, which includes Presidon’t. They bolster a man who sees them as nothing but people to enslave and use as bait. The ostensible leader, Dr. Cale, is ineffective in this environment. The Brit only rebels when they realize their maleness and appeasement will not exclude him from sharing the same fate as the women and people of color, whom Westridge treated like Serone treats him. In a fascist system, men eliminate other men, the competition, and turn women into servants, sexualize them or eliminate them if they are too masculine. It is not to say that when Terri is put back in power, she is effective, which is what makes this movie so great. One group is never idealized. They are all human and flawed and carry those flaws as the movie unfolds. Unfortunately, if this movie was written today, Danny would probably have more in common with the complicit members of the crew, but here, he is the only one who never falls for the okie doke or stops resisting despite being on a losing streak.
“Anaconda” is also a better-looking movie than the 2025 reboot, which is too pristine, perfect and expensive for amateurs. While the 1997 snake never looks realistic, every exterior shot seems as if it was shot during the magic hour. It is better looking than it has any right to be. The movie really captures the beauty of the Amazon, but also the practical effects in terms of danger is downright iconic. A waterfall scene feels familiar even though I have never seen this film before.
“Anaconda” is a cult classic, and I’m almost tempted to watch the rest of the franchise, which couldn’t possibly be as good unless the surviving cast members and behind the camera talent returned. Save your money, stay home and watch JLo and Ice Cube fight to survive in a Nineties creature feature.
