A romantic escape into nature turns into the ultimate moment of reckoning when a husband and wife are trapped in a tent with a deadly snake. Unable to escape and with certain death looming, the tent becomes a heated confessional to a cataclysmic truth. Betrayed, the couple finds themselves spiraling into a dark and dangerous space of which only one can survive.
Amanda Evans new horror thriller Serpent, premiered at the LA Film Festival to an eager audience and high praise after the lights rose. Set in South Africa, the film is a tells the story of two very different people at a crossroads in their marriage who are thrust into a life or death situation with one of the world’s most venomous and aggressive snakes, the Black Mamba.
“…a slow-cooked meditation on a relationship and the death dealing poison of deceit.”
The story opens on tightly wound business woman, Gwynneth (Sarah Dumont) attempting to hide an affair from Adam (Tom Ainsley), her husband, as she rolls in from work. Adam has just received a grant to travel to the remote and very dangerous Suicide Gorge in hopes of discovering a new species of beetle. While supportive, Gwynneth has other things on her mind, like ignoring her lover’s incessant texts and trying to hide her hyperactive phone. Adam and Gwynneth love each other but there are some major issues slithering under the surface in their relationship.
Impetuously, Gwynneth asks to join her husband on his expedition and the two set off into the South African wilderness outside of Cape Town. We get more hints at problems bubbling to the surface as the two make their way out of town, traveling to the remote location. A two hour hike to the no man’s land only creates more drama between the two overheated explorers, but they arrive at their site, set up camp, and things calm down… momentarily. In the dead of night, in a darkened tent, Adam slowly wakes up to hear the hissing breath and muscular slither of a Black Mamba inside the tent. Paralyzed by necessity the two must find a way to escape the confines of the tent as the death-dealing snake slithers in and around their bodies.
