1 hr 44 minsReleased: 9 Oct, 2026
EnglishDrama
‘Beware Boiúna’ is too slow to work as a survival thriller and too restrained to deliver the uncomplicated fun of a giant snake film. The human story is not strong enough to carry the film, while the creature itself is kept out of sight for so long that its eventual appearances eventually exhaust viewers rather than excite them.
Cast & Crew
Beware Boiuna Movie Review: A giant snake movie that barely shows its fangs
Abhishek Srivastava
TNN, Oct 09, 2026, 10:00 AM IST
Story: A medical team travelling through the Amazon becomes trapped between a ruthless pursuer and Boiúna, a gigantic mythical serpent. As they venture deeper into the jungle, survival means escaping both threats.Review: ‘Beware Boiúna’ is a creature film built around a giant serpent from Amazonian folklore. The film packs some interesting ingredients in the form of a remote Amazonian rainforest, a riverboat full of strangers, locals and a mythical predator that could have made for an engaging survival thriller, but the film takes too long to get there. The Colombian jungle locations look dense and intimidating, but the setting rarely translates into real tension. There is always a hint or a suggestion that something dangerous is lurking nearby, yet the film keeps delaying the moment when that danger actually becomes interesting. For a monster film, it is surprisingly patient about showing its monster, and when it shows up, all the interest has dissipated.The plot revolves around doctors Miguel (Juan Pablo Shuk), Alli (Jessica Rothe) and Callum (Will Close) who board a riverboat captained by Raúl (Jaime Newball) to deliver medical aid to villages along the Curuçá River in the Amazon. Lena (Kiana Madeira), Raúl’s adopted daughter and the boat’s mechanic, joins them hoping to find her missing brother Jorge, who vanished while documenting illegal mining. Their journey takes a darker turn when an incident involving Alli and Lena leads to the death of a man connected to Brennan (Logan Marshall-Green), an outsider who begins pursuing the boat with his own crew. As the groups move deeper into the jungle, they disturb Boiúna, a huge serpent from local legend that attacks anyone it sees as a threat to its territory. The travellers are now caught between a human threat closing in behind them and a creature waiting somewhere in the rainforest.This horror thriller suffers from terrible pacing. The first half spends too much time on introductions and personal conflicts without giving viewers enough reason to care about them. By the time Boiúna finally makes an appearance, the film has already used up much of its suspense. Even then, the creature is usually hidden behind trees, shadows, quick cuts and shaky camerawork. There is a difference between making a monster mysterious and making the audience wonder whether it is actually in the scene. The film also tackles the subject of illegal mining and the damage caused by human interference in the rainforest, but those ideas remain largely undeveloped. Things become energetic in the final moments, although the shaky visuals and frantic editing make some of the action harder to follow.Kiana Madeira gives Lena a clear sense of purpose, particularly in the scenes involving her search for Jorge. Jessica Rothe makes Alli believable as a competent doctor who finds herself in dangerous circumstances. Logan Marshall-Green brings plenty of menace to Brennan, although the character is mostly defined by his aggression. The supporting cast does enough to keep the riverboat crew and medical team from feeling like complete strangers, but there is little depth to most of them. The actors are not the reason the human side of the film falls short. They simply have limited material to work with. When the characters are spending more time explaining themselves than becoming interesting, even committed performances can only go so far.‘Beware Boiúna’ is too slow to work as a survival thriller and too restrained to deliver the uncomplicated fun of a giant snake film. The human story is not strong enough to carry the film, while the creature itself is kept out of sight for so long that its eventual appearances eventually exhaust viewers rather than excite them. The final stretch does raise the pace and the danger, but it comes too late to repair what came before. A legendary snake in the Amazon should make every river crossing feel like a bad idea. Here, the filmmakers somehow make waiting to see the snake feel more exhausting than running from it. Despite a promising plot, ‘Beware Boiúna’ never quite gets its fangs into it.
Videos
01:48
01:48
Beware Boiuna – Official Trailer
about 2 months ago
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