fullheadofsteam Let's face reality: most made-for-SyFy movies the past few years have been not only formulaic to the max, but pathetically scripted, acted, and cg'd. So to find this movie, which has some typical SyFy flick flaws but otherwise was fun, well then it's a gem among rocks. First is the intended or unintended visage of the protagonist lead character, because he looks more like an actor picked for a Western movie role than an authentic Old West character, so that starts us off on a fun note. The next best feature is Billy Drago as the antagonist -- he chews up every scene he is in and it is pure delight to watch his now-aged face and listen to his perfected southwestern drawl. And the movie builds tension remarkably well for a TV production. Of course the protagonist and antagonist end up in a cliché gunfight, but that's O.K. because by now we, the audience, WANT to see it! Without giving everything completely away here, let's just say that neither is killed but Billy Drago rides out of town but his little gang is left behind. The next sequence is, of course, the bigger event of the massive invasion into the town by zillions of deadly Copperhead snakes, and how the townspeople and remaining gang prepare for and deal with it. This is where the viewer is forced to focus on how a production and set designer can make a western town look dusty and authentic while being at the same time woefully low-budgeted so that the constructed town is perhaps too tiny overall. Now there are some real CG problems with the snakes, and some special effects problems such as where the hits are from a Gatling gun, but then there are some good (probably too few) splatter and snake-chopping effects. When Mama snake shows up, there's some real fun. What disappoints is that after the major snake encounters, Billy Drago doesn't show up to finalize his score with the lead character, which he had promised to do. In fact, the ending seems to have been a bit contrived to cover for that plot problem. But any time the good guy gets to ride off into the sunset (literally here), it's been a fun ride.

Matt Ryan OK, I saw this movie on UK satellite! I have to say from reading the preview I had some high hopes for this movie but boy was I wrong! This was right up there with one of the worst horror movies I have ever seen! It was advertised in the UK as "Snakes on a Plane in the Wild West"! Although Snakes on a Plane wasn't an amazing movie, it was so much better than this tripe! A loner travels into a wild west town looking for his friend (who is dead) and soon becomes the local hero! Although he has some bad news for the local residents, he has news of a plague of snakes heading their way! He soon becomes the Posse leader and hatches various plans to defeat the scaled worms! As soon (within 2 minutes) of defeating the snakes, a local resident picks up a (obviously rubber) snake tail and from this he detects that they are babies and that the parent is close! Cue the GIANT 200 foot CGI snake....... Need I say more???? 1/10

urko-3 Just few facts. First: It's a movie with a prep of 4 weeks. It's shooting schedule is 20 days. 8 weeks for the edit. 2 mounts for the CGI work. Do the math. Time. Time. Time. The biggest problem of all. Don't get me wrong - Always can be better. Always. May be someone can do better in the same time frame. May be not. Second: As we all know period piece movies are kinda hard. All the costumes, props, sets, etc. Day and Night exteriors. I just think everyone did an extremely good job, for the amount of time they had. Third: I'm happy to read positive comments. That's how it should be. The people who are able to pull out a movie that looks like that don't deserve anything else. I really think some scenes and shots are great. There's a 2 and a half minute shot. Very nice duel on the street. Very nice photography in general. And then again -- Imagine what could be done with just a little bit more time.

Thomas Clement (Mr. OpEd) Copperhead actually achieved a level I've never seen before on the Sci-Fi channel: not half bad! Some of the dialog, always a rusty nail in the foot for these films, is actually GOOD, well-thought out, and delivered professionally. The direction and editing give it pace that makes it a slither above its bad brethren. Lorenzo Senatore's camera work is also excellent.It is not perfect. Holes and gaffs: The dead horse raises its head. The crack-proof safe has drywall you can stick your finger through. The exciting shot of the snakes crushing the fire is spoiled by continuity lapses. Fully loaded guns are handed so you can see that they don't have any bullets in them. I suspect Nathan Furst had to sprinkle enough Morricone nods to make the producers happy (it's distracting and the score was good enough without it). The world's slowest gatling gun that also doubles as a poker/spear chucker (all without ever being tested). An explosion (nice one!) that rips the top floor of a saloon, conveniently killing every last snake, but barely singing two main characters.The main weakness is the snakes themselves. The scene in the stable where the first scofflaw gets it would have been done better Hitchcock style: NOT showing it! In fact, if we'd seen the snakes less and more computing power was available to render them, they would have made for more creepy critters.In conclusion, if Copperhead was on again, I might give it a second viewing, not to make fun of it, but because it was fun. A Sci-Fi first!