Rattlesnake is a 2019 thriller about a single mother who finds herself in debt when she accepts the help of a mysterious woman.
Driving to Oklahoma, Katrina (Carmen Ejogo) is alone with her young daughter Clara (Apollonia Pratt). She takes a detour off the highway to avoid an accident, soon finding herself well away from civilization on a lonely stretch of road in the desert. A flat tire forces her to stop and while she struggles with the jack, Clara wanders into the dust only to get immediately bit by a rattler. In panic, Katrina rushes to an isolated old mobile home not far away where she meets a mysterious woman (Debrianna Mansini) who offers to take care of the daughter (for a fee) while Katrina fixes the car. Strangely though, when she comes back for her child, there are no signs of a snakebite and the woman has vanished. However, payment is due.
Written and directed by Zak Hilditch, this latest Netflix release is pretty standard fare, a well made and produced mix of drama and horror that doesn’t seek to get all that deep in the waters it splashes about in but manages to stay interesting nonetheless, playing with some old themes of good versus evil in a rather blunt but playful fashion.
Katrina didn’t know it when she walked into that mobile home but she was making a deal with the devil, and now that Clara’s been spared, she’s told by a stranger (Bruce Davis) at the hospital she visits to have doctors check on her daughter that she now has seven hours to repay what’s owed. That means one life for another, soul for soul. This potentially puts the film in some fascinating corners where she believes real terror is being visited upon her while staff at the medical center question her sanity. Unfortunately, that’s not really what Rattlesnake is about, instead its theological symbolism and not so subtle message of lost and found layered thick as she tracks her next move.
The premise that one must kill by a deadline or face terrible personal consequence has seen its fair share of screen-time before, and yet there is some promise to Rattlesnake in getting Katrina to make that choice on her own, a few clever moments making her search for a victim feel somewhat earned. That’s mostly because of the good work of Ejogo, who is simply put leagues above the material, delivering a sympathetic, frantic take on a woman pushed to unimaginable limits by the unthinkable.
It’s just too bad the movie itself isn’t as effective with a few holes in the logic that seem wedged in place to keep the story afloat, let alone a dissipating sense of cohesion in circling about to a decision Katrina considers and a flat ending that fails to find the twist the genre sort of demands. Ticking all the boxes and playing directly into the fold, Rattlesnake is a competent thriller but uninspired at best in offering a perfuctory bit of horror.