This movie was technically well-shot, with average acting and beautiful locations, but there are some issues that drags this movie down to an average movie when it could have been a better movie. It had a lot of potential, but it simply just never reached for anything risky or tried anything innovative. Like always with any modern movie, this movie suffers from some logical and narrative issues and choices:
The scenes are shot in a very weird way, with some scenes (particularly at the start of the movie and end) showing the husband and wife together, but for most of the movie you see shots with either just the husband or the wife or the snake. It would have been better to either make all or most scenes with all 3 the main "actors" and how each's actions influences the other, or have the scenes arranged to show the wife in an increasing number of solo scenes to highlight her rapid pace of emotional distance from her husband as guilt eats her up inside; or the husband slowly realizing that something is not right with his wife. Then in the final scenes, show the dead snake, and the dying husband and the wife lying together; with the dead snake being a metaphor for the wife's infidelity, or casting away the stalker/lover completely? The husband dying would also represent her marriage being over due to her affair; or what she is losing either way, considering it was her opening the tent to secretly go check her phone's messages and delete them that offered the snake the chance to sneak into the tent in the first place?
The wife Gwynneth receives an awful lot of mysterious phone calls and messages without the husband becoming suspicious. She says it's a team building exercise, but doesn't state who phoned or why they would phone after the event? Later in the movie we see the husband looking at the wife's iPhone to create light to attract the snake, but he only sees the lover's messages later on in the movie, with the wife acting very shifty when he starts using her phone?
There are way too many snake shots, with slow movements that stretched the scenes for way too long. It makes the snake shots and scenes very boring, because you see the snake way too many times, as opposed to not knowing where the snake could be at any time and sudden death coming from any side or angle. The one shot that was very good was where you only saw the snake's tail as it slipped beneath the sleeping bags, as well as the scene where the snake moved beneath the husband's neck. The shots where the snake also looked straight at the camera or were poised ready to strike were also great scenes, but unfortunately it was overused and therefore lost it's dramatic effect each time after the first that it was used.
A couple of totally dark scenes contributed nothing to the movie, as it was too dark to see the snake slowly approaching the couple. South African movies should simply leave dark scenes completely out of their film making, because it's simply applied inappropriately in all movies I've seen so far with such scenes, and contributes to viewer confusion, rather than add anything to the movie, like tension or anticipation.
There is also some continuity issues - first the couple do not move, then move around all the time with the snake in their tent. Even when they are lying still, they are still moving around, which makes no sense in context of what the husband tells the wife, since the wife is busy tearing a hole in the side of the tent. The husband could also have made a move throughout most of the movie, yet remains mostly still, which is in contrast to the wife pleading with him or him trying to figure out what to do - with much of the movie centered around the couple talking as opposed to trying to get a very dangerous snake out of their tent or trying to escape from the tent. The couple also falls asleep with the snake in their tent - people move around in their sleep, so wouldn't the snake bite them when either or both of them did during their sleep?
Husband chokes the wife when finding out about her affair, yet stops midway through the action with no explanation or anything preceding it. She doesn't say anything coherent to him, and he doesn't seem to have any kind of action or realization that makes him stop. He knows she's pregnant (she told him), and yet he still attacks her.
The couple tries to gas the snake, but doesn't affect them in any way? Also, why would you have something with gas in a tent in the first place, yet leave your knife (and therefore your only way of protecting yourself in the wilderness) outside? The husband is some kind of expert on the wild (knowing exactly how to handle the snake, handle the anti-venom), yet seems totally clueless on some aspects of camping?
There's clearly a way in the tent for the snake to exit from, but it doesn't? The snake is able to move around in a free fashion inside the tent, so why wouldn't it simply leave the tent through the tear we can easily see in the movie?
They try to set up a screen from a sleeping bag between the snake and them self in the tent, yet the snake can easily go around it, as we can see when its tail was shown under the screen? The wife then tries to hack at the snake's tale with a broken mobile accessory, when the snake clearly isn't a danger to either of them at that point. It would therefore be useful for an actress to actually do that, as it would escalate the situation, rather than provide a solution to a problem?
Can a black mamba swim? Even if that wasn't an issue, we see the fight between the husband and the snake in the pool (or should I say we sort of see something) as some of the fight scenes were all over the place and not a lot can be seen, with the only clear scenes being where the snake rapidly approaches the husband and where the husband kills the snake?
Why can the husband Adam kill the snake with his bare hands in the water, but can't do any thing in the tent?
Why did the wife have two pairs of bite marks, when the snake only attacked her once, and we only see one pair of bite marks at the start? I also don't think hallucinations would extend to seeing bite marks where none exist?
The hallucinations of the husband is poor CGI of the bug, as you can clearly see that it doesn't "fit" into the real world. This is contrast with the baby hallucination by the wife, which is much better CGI? The baby's contorted reptilian face, however, broke the entire scene. It would have made more sense to have her hearing the hiss of a snake, rather than the cry of a baby, as her mind would start jumbling her recent experiences, increasing her paranoia, rather than seeing a snake baby.
Leaving the bag with the anti-venom seemed like a plot contrivance, as it was clearly there in front of them and not as if the bag wasn't a color that didn't make it stand out? They also don't know where they stowed it, yet they only put their items down in a single place to check out a baboon spider, so it's pretty straightforward where the bag with anti-venom was?
Why would the wife take off the string from her arm (that got bitten) and put it on the other arm to cut off blood circulation and slow the spread of the venom? The venom would inflict pain on the part of her arm that got bitten, so it would not make sense that a hallucination would make her confused, as the arm with the 2 bite marks would not hurt?
Also, the ending was very anti-climatic. You hear a chopper approaching, but everything happens much quicker than the 20-40 minutes for paralysis to occur, so trying to make it seems as if there is a tragic ending feels very false. The choice the husband makes seems very odd, as the woman is pregnant, possibly by someone else. A better ending would have been either the husband or wife leaves the other to die, or the husband's best friend was the wife's lover. A shock ending would have made a better ending for this movie.
Finally, why would there only be one snake? Wouldn't it have been a much better scene to have the one save the other, and then have another snake or multiple snakes coming from the pool or vegetation converging on them, with them unable to do anything to save themselves? A futile rescue attempt with the actions of one ultimately (and indirectly) dooming the other as well? Having the wife's infidelity not only leading to breaking up the marriage, but also very likely in killing the husband and leaving "his?" child possibly fatherless?
The scenes are shot in a very weird way, with some scenes (particularly at the start of the movie and end) showing the husband and wife together, but for most of the movie you see shots with either just the husband or the wife or the snake. It would have been better to either make all or most scenes with all 3 the main "actors" and how each's actions influences the other, or have the scenes arranged to show the wife in an increasing number of solo scenes to highlight her rapid pace of emotional distance from her husband as guilt eats her up inside; or the husband slowly realizing that something is not right with his wife. Then in the final scenes, show the dead snake, and the dying husband and the wife lying together; with the dead snake being a metaphor for the wife's infidelity, or casting away the stalker/lover completely? The husband dying would also represent her marriage being over due to her affair; or what she is losing either way, considering it was her opening the tent to secretly go check her phone's messages and delete them that offered the snake the chance to sneak into the tent in the first place?
The wife Gwynneth receives an awful lot of mysterious phone calls and messages without the husband becoming suspicious. She says it's a team building exercise, but doesn't state who phoned or why they would phone after the event? Later in the movie we see the husband looking at the wife's iPhone to create light to attract the snake, but he only sees the lover's messages later on in the movie, with the wife acting very shifty when he starts using her phone?
There are way too many snake shots, with slow movements that stretched the scenes for way too long. It makes the snake shots and scenes very boring, because you see the snake way too many times, as opposed to not knowing where the snake could be at any time and sudden death coming from any side or angle. The one shot that was very good was where you only saw the snake's tail as it slipped beneath the sleeping bags, as well as the scene where the snake moved beneath the husband's neck. The shots where the snake also looked straight at the camera or were poised ready to strike were also great scenes, but unfortunately it was overused and therefore lost it's dramatic effect each time after the first that it was used.
A couple of totally dark scenes contributed nothing to the movie, as it was too dark to see the snake slowly approaching the couple. South African movies should simply leave dark scenes completely out of their film making, because it's simply applied inappropriately in all movies I've seen so far with such scenes, and contributes to viewer confusion, rather than add anything to the movie, like tension or anticipation.
There is also some continuity issues - first the couple do not move, then move around all the time with the snake in their tent. Even when they are lying still, they are still moving around, which makes no sense in context of what the husband tells the wife, since the wife is busy tearing a hole in the side of the tent. The husband could also have made a move throughout most of the movie, yet remains mostly still, which is in contrast to the wife pleading with him or him trying to figure out what to do - with much of the movie centered around the couple talking as opposed to trying to get a very dangerous snake out of their tent or trying to escape from the tent. The couple also falls asleep with the snake in their tent - people move around in their sleep, so wouldn't the snake bite them when either or both of them did during their sleep?
Husband chokes the wife when finding out about her affair, yet stops midway through the action with no explanation or anything preceding it. She doesn't say anything coherent to him, and he doesn't seem to have any kind of action or realization that makes him stop. He knows she's pregnant (she told him), and yet he still attacks her.
The couple tries to gas the snake, but doesn't affect them in any way? Also, why would you have something with gas in a tent in the first place, yet leave your knife (and therefore your only way of protecting yourself in the wilderness) outside? The husband is some kind of expert on the wild (knowing exactly how to handle the snake, handle the anti-venom), yet seems totally clueless on some aspects of camping?
There's clearly a way in the tent for the snake to exit from, but it doesn't? The snake is able to move around in a free fashion inside the tent, so why wouldn't it simply leave the tent through the tear we can easily see in the movie?
They try to set up a screen from a sleeping bag between the snake and them self in the tent, yet the snake can easily go around it, as we can see when its tail was shown under the screen? The wife then tries to hack at the snake's tale with a broken mobile accessory, when the snake clearly isn't a danger to either of them at that point. It would therefore be useful for an actress to actually do that, as it would escalate the situation, rather than provide a solution to a problem?
Can a black mamba swim? Even if that wasn't an issue, we see the fight between the husband and the snake in the pool (or should I say we sort of see something) as some of the fight scenes were all over the place and not a lot can be seen, with the only clear scenes being where the snake rapidly approaches the husband and where the husband kills the snake?
Why can the husband Adam kill the snake with his bare hands in the water, but can't do any thing in the tent?
Why did the wife have two pairs of bite marks, when the snake only attacked her once, and we only see one pair of bite marks at the start? I also don't think hallucinations would extend to seeing bite marks where none exist?
The hallucinations of the husband is poor CGI of the bug, as you can clearly see that it doesn't "fit" into the real world. This is contrast with the baby hallucination by the wife, which is much better CGI? The baby's contorted reptilian face, however, broke the entire scene. It would have made more sense to have her hearing the hiss of a snake, rather than the cry of a baby, as her mind would start jumbling her recent experiences, increasing her paranoia, rather than seeing a snake baby.
Leaving the bag with the anti-venom seemed like a plot contrivance, as it was clearly there in front of them and not as if the bag wasn't a color that didn't make it stand out? They also don't know where they stowed it, yet they only put their items down in a single place to check out a baboon spider, so it's pretty straightforward where the bag with anti-venom was?
Why would the wife take off the string from her arm (that got bitten) and put it on the other arm to cut off blood circulation and slow the spread of the venom? The venom would inflict pain on the part of her arm that got bitten, so it would not make sense that a hallucination would make her confused, as the arm with the 2 bite marks would not hurt?
Also, the ending was very anti-climatic. You hear a chopper approaching, but everything happens much quicker than the 20-40 minutes for paralysis to occur, so trying to make it seems as if there is a tragic ending feels very false. The choice the husband makes seems very odd, as the woman is pregnant, possibly by someone else. A better ending would have been either the husband or wife leaves the other to die, or the husband's best friend was the wife's lover. A shock ending would have made a better ending for this movie.
Finally, why would there only be one snake? Wouldn't it have been a much better scene to have the one save the other, and then have another snake or multiple snakes coming from the pool or vegetation converging on them, with them unable to do anything to save themselves? A futile rescue attempt with the actions of one ultimately (and indirectly) dooming the other as well? Having the wife's infidelity not only leading to breaking up the marriage, but also very likely in killing the husband and leaving "his?" child possibly fatherless?