reidronnie72

This is a fairly short (40 odd minutes) but very interesting film about snake handlers in the Southern US. I found this film by accident after reading Dennis Covington's book Salvation on Sand Mountain which deals with the same subject. I typed in a few names from the book and found the film freely available on You Tube.

Many of the people featured in Convington's book appear in this film and in fact you realise that the snake handling community is in fact very small and they all seem to know or know of each other. To me the people interview struck me as genuine fairly normal people who you would not have looked twice at if not for the snake handling.

The film is purely footage of snake handling services with interviews with those taking part explaining their beliefs. There is no commentary and no judgement for or against their practices. While this means there is a lack of background it also allows those involved to describe there beliefs without any judgement. To my mind there is no doubt that these people believe what they say. It is not done for show or for the outside world. The fact that so many people they know have been bitten and many died shows their conviction.

While Covington's words describe the fervour that builds during the services aided by the droning electric guitar and country/blues/rock gospel music this film shows how the people becoming more and more caught up in the moment. I found myself wishing I could be there to witness it in person (although I had no desire to touch any snakes).

The film also features the now infamous Glenn Summerford, a snake handling preacher, who is now in prison serving 99 years for trying to kill his wife. This film has nothing to do with that case. However that case does help to date the material. Their is very little on the internet about this film and IMDb claims the film was made in 2001 but according to Folkstreams website it was made by Al Clayton in 1991. This is the year of Summerford's fall from grace. As Summerford is still a free man in the film and the case is not mentioned it is safe to assume that this is correct and it was filmed pre October 1991. It also suggests that at least some if not all of it was filmed in Alabama, Summerford's home.

My only slight complaint about the film is that it does not show more of the day to day life of the people but I guess thats not the point of the film. Covington's book does give a lot more background on the lives of the people while "In Jesus Name" allows you to see inside the actual snake handling services so vividly described by Covington. So for that reason I think they are good companion pieces to each other.

I like post-apocalyptic stories so I was always going to like this unless it was truly awful. It is not but it does have some awful and very unbelievable moments. People get sick and then slowly die and while I accept that it did mention that the virus is speeding up it seems highly unlikely that a whole mosque of people quietly die (without moving) and the young guy doesn't even notice! Then main characters all come together and despite the fact most of the world's population is wiped out everyone, not just a couple of then, everyone wants to go off on their own. The main character in true politically correct BBC style is a female who is supposed to me smart, strong and caring. Unfortunately she is annoying, prone to ridiculous speeches and not much of a planner or leader. They have supposedly stocked up on food etc but have so far made no firm long term plans. They do have some interesting adventures but still not as interesting as they should be. They seem to spend a lot of time lounging around an old stately home until they or some of them go of for an adventure. But I do enjoy it when they go through the empty city which is now dangerous due to thieves and scavengers. It almost seems realistic in those scenes. When they meet the "government" the former cabinet minister seems to have set up a civilised society - they even have electricity. She (female again) comes across as scared but calm and sensible but you do not get a lot of insight into her character then when they catch some very pathetic looking thieves she blows one of them away completely against character and shocks even her own people. Luckily Annoying Abby is there with a speech just in time to save the other thief from the same fate. You also have shady real government types who are trying to make a vaccine using some ruthless techniques. The BBC do seem to concerned with making sure that there is a good mix of cultures and ethnicities but not realistic enough to have anyone older than 40, fat or slightly ugly in the main group of characters. I could go on but ultimately I do like this or at least the post apocalyptic setting and I hope the writers will watch the first series again and sort out the dodgy acting kill off the most ridiculous characters and start writing credible story lines because if not I can't see this getting past a second series. I hope they show the 70s series which while I'm sure it will have its faults it will at least seem more realistic.

The idea of this seems like a good one as the X-Factor is just crying out to be victim of this type of show. Unfortunately I found the final result poor. Don't get me wrong there are some funny bits but not many and the funniest parts to me were the 3 medleys performed by the "contestants". The choices of songs and the dance routines were very funny (particularly Two Up Two Down) and although I found Kay's own character the least interesting it did crack me up when she was singing "Free Nelson Mandela". However the rest of it was quite tired.

I think part of the problem is that the parodies were not (and maybe could not be) as funny as the actual X-Factor and similar reality shows. The rejected acts were not as funny as the ones on the real X-Factor because rather than it being some natter who really does believe they can sing you know it is actors performing a script. The same can be said of the ridiculous judges comments they were not as funny as the comments the real judges make because again you knew they were scripted where as the "patter" of the real judges of the reality shows are much (although unintentionally) funnier even down to the fake arguments and walkouts. Please note the episode of Buzzcocks where Simon Amstell points out the utter nonsense spoken by the female judge of one of those dancing shows when praising the dancers.

It has been said by others that Kay has got less and less funny since Phoneix Nights and this is probably true. The joy of that show was that there were several very good and very funny writers (not to mention very funny characters) and they worked to make the show seem believable while also hilarious. I know there has been some sort of falling out but it seems a shame because Kay with those guys was at his peak. Maybe this show would have been better if all the Phonix Nights Team had been involved.

The black monk gave this film such a hard time I felt I had to defend it a little. This isn't a great movie it is cheaply made and obviously is low budget but if you don't come to it with too many expectations its actually quite an enjoyable movie.

This movie does look cheap. In fact it looks so cheap that when I watched it I actually thought it was a 70's b-movie, it had that sort of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original version)" look about it. Now I find out its from 1997 I wonder if they set out to make it in the same schlocky horror vein those 70's movies.

The cast do do their best and make what could be just awful quite a fun movie. Their acting isn't great but its also not the worst you'll find either. As the Black Monk says the plot has many holes in it but this didn't ruin my viewing of it and a big budget doesn't necessarily mean no major plot holes or great acting either. The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Pearl Harbour all come to mind. You aren't going to sit down to watch this expecting an Oscar winner.

The bank robbery plot is really just a side issue to get into the woods for the slaughter to begin. However it gives the film a slightly different storyline (the cops are after them too) rather than the usual, bunch of kids roaming around in the woods for no particular reason.

The bottom line is that you know whats going to happen from the word go. But the film moves fairly quickly (as it should, there is no need for any major character development in this type of film) and it kept me entertained for the time it lasted.

I watched this late on a Saturday night with a couple of beers and I would suggest that this is the best way to enjoy it. If you want to watch a non taxing but entertaining schlocky horror movie you could do a lot worse than Raven's Ridge.