Anaconda: What The Horror Movie Gets Right (& Wrong) About Real Snakes – Screen Rant

Anaconda portrays the titular snake as a massive and fearsome creature. Here's what the horror movie gets right (and wrong) about snakes.

Anaconda likely ignited a phobia of snakes in its audience, but how much did the horror movie actually get rightand wrong about the real creatures? The horror movieportrays snakes, specifically anacondas, as monsters of near-mythical proportions. While much of that was exaggerated for the sake of drama and scares, some of the movie's canon is rooted in truth.

Released in 1997, Anacondafollows a documentaryfilmmaker, Terri (Jennifer Lopez), and her crew as they travel to the Amazon to film a local tribe. They come across a man named Paul (Jon Voight) who is stranded on the riverbank. Once they rescue him, he claims he will help them track down the tribe. Little does the documentary crew know that he is actually using them to hunt down a legendary and deadly anaconda.

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Anaconda's titular snake is so large and exaggerated to the point that its presence often feels comical.Due to that larger-than-life aspect, the film never became the serious horror movie it strived to be. Let's take a look at howAnacondautilizes snakes and why, sometimes, less is more.

Anacondabuilds up the monstrosity of its snake from the scene'sfirst moments. The horror moviekicks off with crawl text that provide scientific facts on the anaconda that are clearly intended to scare its audience. Those opening wordsare actually rooted in fact, for the most part.Anaconda states that the titular snake can get up to 40 feet long. That's technically true, but highly unlikely. While anacondas are incredibly long creatures,they tend to max out closer to 33 feet in length.

One ofAnaconda's most iconic scenes is teased in the opening crawl text as well. The movie states that these snakes will swallow their prey whole and regurgitate it, only to consume it again later. The text says that anacondas do so to kill their prey again; this is demonstrated later in the movie withPaul's death. Thehorror movie creature kills him, then regurgitates him to pursue Terri. In actuality, when an anaconda swallows its prey whole, it takes a long time for the creature to digest it. Often times, it will retreat to a secluded location to do so in peace. If a snake is in a fight or flight situation, it may regurgitate its prey before eventually digesting it. That way, it's not weighed down and will be more mobile. So,Anacondawas technically scientifically accurate by having the snake do this prior tochasingTerri. But, in reality, an anaconda would've done this to be quicker in its pursuit, not for thesake of swallowing Paulits victimagain.

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Anaconda: What The Horror Movie Gets Right (& Wrong) About Real Snakes - Screen Rant