Review - Snakehead Terror

What’s that they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? This movie is a case of that saying.


A small fishing town’s economy has been decimated by the introduction and subsequent destruction of Snakehead fish in its lake. Two years after the poisoning of the lake to rid it of these voracious predators, the townspeople are desperately trying to regrow their little fishing and tourism-based community. Unfortunately, it seems as if there is something in and around the water that isn’t going to let that happen. The opening scenes of the film show a hunter (Don MacKay) and his dog coming across a bear in the woods that has been torn to shreds. The dog, of course, chases something to the lake and his owner dutifully follows.

A subsequent investigation by the town’s sheriff Patrick James (Bruce Boxleitner) and a few more mysterious deaths, including that of the boyfriend of the sheriff’s daughter, lead the sheriff to the conclusion that the lake must be closed. Cue Mayor Cole (Scott Swanson) who doesn’t want the town to suffer any unnecessary financial setbacks and forbids Sheriff James from going public with any information until he has “all his ducks in a row.”

Cue the beautiful marine biologist Lori Dale (Carol Alt) who discerns that these attacks were definitely the work of Snakeheads. However, they would have to be huge, and how do we explain that? Well, it seems as though the owner of the local bait shop Colin Jenkins (Gary Jones) (whose brother also happens to be the town coroner Doc Jenkins (William B. Davis)) in all his wisdom has chosen to hedge the town’s bet a bit with regard to repopulating the lake with large fish. One thing the Jenkins brother’s did not bet on was that not all of the Snakeheads were killed in the original poisoning of the lake and the introduction of the human growth hormone into the lake to beef up the other fish, actually increased the size and voracity of these lake monsters.

Thus, began the Snakehead Terror. Surprisingly gory, this film makes up for its bad acting and long drawn out scenes with terrifically obscene Snakehead attacks. Add to this the facts that there really are Snakehead fish who are extremely aggressive and can walk on land and it just makes you wonder . . . All in all Snakehead Terror is a really good Sci-Fi original film.

Directed by
Paul Ziller

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
A.G. Lawrence

Cast (in credits order)
Bruce Boxleitner .... Sheriff Patrick James
Carol Alt .... Lori Dale
William B. Davis .... Doc Jenkins
Chelan Simmons .... Amber
Juliana Wimbles .... Jagger
Ryan McDonell .... Luke
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alistair Abell .... Sammy
Doug Abrahams .... Deputy Clark
Brenda Campbell .... Reporter
Bro Gilbert .... Deputy Reece
P. Lynn Johnson .... Norma
Gary Jones .... Colin Jenkins
Chad Krowchuk .... Craig
Matthew MacCaull .... James
Don MacKay .... Ray Wilkens
Gardiner Millar .... Hunter 1
Darren Moore .... Zeke
Manoj Sood .... Raj
Sylvesta Stuart .... Hunter 2
Scott Swanson .... Mayor Cole