Boiúna is older than the movie. The Amazon basin has been telling stories about a colossal serpent in its rivers for generations, under that name and as the Cobra Grande. Beware Boiúna is Lionsgate’s version of her, the final trailer is out, and tickets for the October 2 theatrical run are on sale.
Mike P. Nelson directs from a screenplay by Alan B. McElroy, working from a story McElroy developed with Tony Giglio. Kiana Madeira, Jessica Rothe and Logan Marshall-Green lead a medical expedition that goes into the jungle and finds the water already occupied. It runs 104 minutes, it is rated R, and it lands in one of the busiest Octobers on the calendar.
Nelson and McElroy Have Done This Before
McElroy wrote the original Wrong Turn in 2003. Nelson directed the 2021 reboot, which McElroy also scripted, so the two of them have already built one movie around a landscape that eats people. Further back, McElroy’s first produced screenplay was Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers in 1988, which is a longer horror résumé than a giant-snake picture usually comes with. Nelson has his own busy stretch ahead: he is set to direct the next Saw with James Wan producing.
Behind them are Jeremy Bolt of JB Pictures and Robert Kulzer of Constantin Film, the German company behind the Resident Evil film series. Lionsgate is distributing.
The Jungle Is Not a Set
Principal photography went to the Amazon rainforest near Leticia, Colombia, shooting on the river and in the jungle around it. The decision shows up on screen. Our review singled out the production design as one of the film’s strengths.
iHorror Has Already Seen It
Beware Boiúna premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 17, and our review gave it four stars out of five: the snake is the point, the movie knows the snake is the point, and the production design does more work than the subgenre usually bothers with. Nelson sat down with us at the festival to talk about why nobody in this movie beats the jungle.
October 2 puts it in theaters four weeks ahead of Halloween, with most of the month’s other horror releases still to come.
