Netflix's ‘Rattlesnake’ review: A throwaway thriller that you could easily give a miss
As you join Katrina (Carmen Ejogo) and her five-year-old daughter Clara, on their journey through the southern deserts, you will find the premise to be perfect for a crime-horror-thriller plot. Driving through the endless roads and barren lands, with almost not a single human soul in sight, Katrina’s car breaks down and while she is at it, her daughter gets bitten by a rattlesnake.
The writer/director makes no preamble and gets straight to the primary challenge of our protagonist, which seemed pretty fair. Even when Katrina sought help with her daughter from the strange woman in the RV, and found Clara miraculously healed, we were still with the story. But as soon as she met yet another mysterious character at the hospital and they exchanged a very ambiguous conversation, we started to lose grip.
The very statement (of the man) that “Your daughter’s soul was spared now you have to pay in one” was enough to hint that the story is not going anywhere on the lines of a crime thriller. Perhaps the attempt was of a psychological thriller, as we determined from Katrina’s hallucinations/visions. Then, with further appearances of ‘dead people and Katrina’s eerie encounters with similar more, we were convinced that there is a serious supernatural angle weaved into the plot. But to what end? That's a question that the movie failed to answer eventually.
At first, you would assume the woman in the RV to be a representation of the devil or the spirit of death, because only then the deal of a soul for a soul starts to make sense. But apart from that, there is no significant reference to the supernatural, the underworld or the afterlife. Now, we do understand the rationale behind subtlety of concepts, when it comes to dealing with paranormal horror, with filmmakers deriving influences from Stephen King-style storytelling. However, there’s quite a visible difference between inspiration and a low-key knock-off.
If one has to define ‘Rattlesnake’ in a few words, it is essentially a bleak adaptation, or rather a patchwork of King’s and other such prominent works. There are instances from ‘Needful Things’, ‘The Box’, and ‘Drag Me to Hell’, and a few nuances of ‘The Shining’. While drawing references from such masterful works could have been an asset for the movie if executed sharply, it only ended up making ‘Rattlesnake’ unidentifiable as an exclusive story.
One of the dullest things that you notice instantly is the evolution of the characters. Of course, Katrina is our hero and she drives the story, and the focus needed to be on her. But time and again, as we all would know and have observed, the hero needs another strong protagonist to shine. There were quite a few characters, technically speaking, but they seemed peppered over the plot rather than letting them stew in the plot. If we have to lay a finger, it could have been the RV woman.
The momentum of Katrina’s journey picks up from the point she meets the lady in the camper. Then why don’t we see more of her interactions with Katrina, to act as a reminder of Katrina’s current challenges or perhaps representing something that only Katrina can understand? Instead, the mysterious lady remains mysterious, and her ‘delegates’ do the legwork of visiting Katrina every time she needs a reminder. This, according to us, is major miss, which could otherwise have had positive influences on Katrina’s character. A one-man army story can only keep you hooked so far.
Meanwhile, there are quite a few threads opened, but left on loose ends; the symbolism, for example. Whether it is a supernatural thriller or a psychological thriller, symbolisms occupy a very prominent place in such plots. In a supernatural story, a rattlesnake, a wolf, the desert, and the setting sun, typically have hidden and implied meanings, including signifying the movie’s name through such symbolism.
In all fairness, there is a serious lack of punch and purpose of the story, besides driving the fact that a mother would do anything to save her child. Zak Hilditch fails to deliver the kind of suspense and thrill we were promised in the trailer, turning it into a dull movie, where you would not miss anything even if you give it a miss.
‘Rattlesnake’ is currently streaming on Netflix.