Rattlers (film)

Last updated
Rattlers
DVD cover of the movie Rattlers.jpg
DVD cover
Directed by John McCauley
Written by Jerry Golding
John McCauley
Produced byJohn McCauley
Music by Miles Goodman
Distributed by Boxoffice International Pictures
Release date
  • April 23, 1976 (April 23, 1976)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Rattlers is a 1976 horror film starring Sam Chew, Elisabeth Chauvet, Tony Ballen, Dan Priest, Ron Gold, Darwin Joston, and Gary Van Ormand. The film was produced, directed and co-written by John McCauley. Harry Novak, head of Boxoffice International Pictures was the executive producer. The film features an early score by Golden Globe nominated film composer Miles Goodman.

Contents

Plot

When two young boys are savagely attacked and killed by a legion of rattlesnakes in a small California desert town, the local sheriff (Tony Ballen) calls upon herpetologist Dr. Tom Parkinson (Sam Chew), a Los Angeles college professor, to discover why the snakes are displaying abnormal aggression and swarming behavior. The sheriff teams Parkinson with war photographer Ann Bradley (Elisabeth Chauvet).

As more people in the desert town are killed by the vicious rattlesnakes, Parkinson's and Bradley's investigation leads them to a nearby army base, where the commanding officer, Colonel Stroud (Dan Priest), seems strangely reluctant to help them. Parkinson and Bradley are, however, assisted by the base's chief medical officer, Captain Delaney (Ron Gold).

Shortly afterward, Palmer (Darwin Joston) and Woodley (Gary Van Ormand), two soldiers on night patrol, stop to change a flat tire on their jeep and are killed by a horde of rattlesnakes. Delaney then summons Parkinson and Bradley back to the base, without Stroud's knowledge, so they can investigate the soldiers' strange deaths.

Eventually, Parkinson discovers that the colonel ordered, and then covered up, the illegal disposal of an experimental nerve gas called "CT3" in one of the local desert caves. The exposure of the snakes to the nerve gas had made them unusually aggressive. When Delaney drunkenly confronts Stroud and threatens to expose his crime, Stroud kills him. Stroud then engages the local sheriff's department in a gun battle and is killed.

Cinematic Titanic Live

Cinematic Titanic , a "revival" project by several former cast members of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (including series creator Joel Hodgson), chose Rattlers as one of the films for their 2011 Cinematic Titanic Live tour. Their treatment of the film debuted at the Pepito's Parkway Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota on September 17, 2011.[ citation needed ]

Sequel

Dustin Ferguson directed a sequel, Rattlers 2, starring Mel Novak, Brinke Stevens, and Dawna Lee Heising. It premiered on After Hours Cinema on WGUD-TV January 8, 2021. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Blazing Saddles</i> 1974 Western comedy film

Blazing Saddles is a 1974 American satirical postmodernist Western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger, based on a story treatment by Bergman. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audiences, was nominated for three Academy Awards and is ranked number six on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Laughs list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pueblo, Colorado</span> City in Colorado, United States

Pueblo is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 111,876 at the 2020 United States Census, making Pueblo the ninth most populous city in Colorado. Pueblo is the principal city of the Pueblo, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and a major city of the Front Range Urban Corridor.

<i>Saving Private Ryan</i> 1998 film by Steven Spielberg

Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in France during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller, on their mission to locate Private James Francis Ryan and bring him home safely after his three brothers are killed in action. The cast also includes Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Barry Pepper, Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix, Arizona</span> Capital of Arizona, United States

Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1,608,139 residents as of 2020. It is the fifth-most populous city in the United States and the most populous state capital in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Predation</span> Biological interaction where a predator kills and eats a prey organism

Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation and parasitoidism. It is distinct from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge; it overlaps with herbivory, as seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators.

<i>The Joshua Tree</i> 1987 studio album by U2

The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, The Unforgettable Fire, the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group's antipathy for the "real America" with their fascination with the "mythical America".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rattlesnake</span> Group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus

Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae. All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small animals such as birds and rodents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skrull</span> Fictional extraterrestrial race

The Skrulls are a fictional race of extraterrestrial shapeshifters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They first appeared in Fantastic Four #2 and were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. They originated from the planet Skrullos and their empire is located in the Andromeda Galaxy. Their infiltration of Earth was a major event in the Marvel Comics universe as shown in the crossover event Secret Invasion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synanon</span> 1958 California drug rehab program that devolved into a 1970s cult

Synanon, originally known as Tender Loving Care, was a new religious movement founded in 1958 by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in Santa Monica, California, United States. Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, Synanon developed into an alternative community centered on group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game," a form of attack therapy. The group ultimately became a cult called the Church of Synanon in the 1970s.

<i>Assault on Precinct 13</i> (1976 film) 1976 film by John Carpenter

Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American action thriller film written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. It features Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against a relentless criminal gang, and Darwin Joston as a death row-bound convict who assists him. Laurie Zimmer, Tony Burton, Martin West, and Nancy Kyes co-star as other defenders of the precinct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inland taipan</span> Highly venomous snake native to Australia

The inland taipan, also commonly known as the western taipan, small-scaled snake, or fierce snake, is a species of extremely venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is endemic to semiarid regions of central east Australia. Aboriginal Australians living in those regions named the snake dandarabilla. It was formally described by Frederick McCoy in 1879 and then by William John Macleay in 1882, but for the next 90 years, it was a mystery to the scientific community; no further specimens were found, and virtually nothing was added to the knowledge of this species until its rediscovery in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King brown snake</span> Highly venomous snake native to Australia

The king brown snake is a species of highly venomous snake of the family Elapidae, native to northern, western, and Central Australia. Despite its common name, it is a member of the genus Pseudechis and only distantly related to true brown snakes. Its alternative common name is the mulga snake, although it lives in many habitats apart from mulga. First described by English zoologist John Edward Gray in 1842, it is a robust snake up to 3.3 m (11 ft) long. It is variable in appearance, with individuals from northern Australia having tan upper parts, while those from southern Australia are dark brown to blackish. Sometimes, it is seen in a reddish-green texture. The dorsal scales are two-toned, sometimes giving the snake a patterned appearance. Its underside is cream or white, often with orange splotches. The species is oviparous. The snake is considered to be a least-concern species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, though may have declined with the spread of the cane toad.

<i>Chatos Land</i> 1972 film by Michael Winner

Chato's Land is a 1972 Western Technicolor film directed by Michael Winner, starring Charles Bronson and Jack Palance.

<i>The Transgressors</i>

The Transgressors is a crime novel by Jim Thompson, published in 1961. It is one of a very few Thompson novels to feature a traditional love story as a major part of the plot where the lovers have a happy ending together rather than one murdering or betraying the other as is the norm in most of Thompson's novels. As with most of Thompson's novels it takes place in the Southwest (Texas) where Thompson grew up and it leverages Thompson's diverse life experiences in creating the characters and situations in a community dominated by the oil industry.

References

  1. "Dustin Ferguson's thriller Rattlers 2 starring Mel Novak,Brinke Stevens & Dawna Lee Heising coming to DVD and VOD". horrornews.net. Retrieved 2021-03-22.