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Snakes in Movies
Group Pages

All Movie Snakes
Must Die!
All Movie Snakes
Want to Kill You!
Dancing With Snakes
Giant Monster Snakes
Pet Snakes
Shooting Snakes
Snake Bites
Snake Charmers
Snake Face
Snake Fights
Snake People
Snake Pits
SnakeSexploitation
Snakes & Skulls
Snakes Run Amok
Snakes Used
as Weapons
Snakes Used
for Comedy
Snakes Used for
Food or Medicine
Snakes Used
Realistically
Throwing and
Whipping Snakes


Kinds of Snakes
Rattlesnakes
Cobras
Black Mambas
Boas, Pythons,
and Anacondas
Unusual Species

Settings
Snake in the House!
Snakes in Beds
Snakes in Jungles
and Swamps
Snakes In Trees

Genres & Locations
Snakes In
Westerns
Snakes in
Asian Movies
Herps in
Australian Movies
Herps in
James Bond Movies
Herps in
Silent Movies
Herps in
Spielberg Movies


Snake Species Not Often Used In Movies


This page is meant to highlight species of snakes that are not commonly used in movies I've seen. Most snakes seen in movies made in North Americs are rattlesnakes, boas, pythons, anacondas, gopher snakes, cobras, black mambas, California kingsnakes, corn snakes, rat snakes, milk snakes, water snakes, indigo snakes, and copperheads. Chinese movies use lots of Asian rat snakes and beauty snakes and pythons, and other Asian movies use a lot of cobras and pythons. European movies tend to use common snakes such as grass snakes, and adders, and some movies made in Europe use slow worms to portray snakes even though they are actually lizards without legs. Australian movies tend to use a lot of the pythons native to the continent. I haven't seen a lot of movies made in Africa that use snakes, but those I have seen also tend to use a lot of pythons.

Occasionally we see other kinds of snakes, which I am calling unusual, not because they are necessarily uncommon species, but because I have not seen them used in movies very often. Albino pythons and albino corn snakes are not uncommon in movies, but other species of albino snakes are, so I'll add them here if I see any. A lot of these are snakes seen in movies that were not made in North America which use species from their region, which may not be uncommon in their regional cinema, and which I probably can't identify, but since I have not seen them in movies before, I'm putting them on this list.


Spoiler Alert !

Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching a film.

Shortcut to Movie Title


A
Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982) [Ator l'invincible]

Ator is abducted by a beautiful witch who likes to play with snakes in bed, including an unusual Asian rat snake with a few common names: Ridley's beauty snake; cave dwelling rat snake; and cave racer.
Ator Screenshot
B
Bad Timing (1980)

A couple quarrels in an outdoor cafe overlooking a Moroccan plaza where snake charmers are entertaining the crowd. We see some interesting native Morrocan snakes.

Bad Timing
The Big Gundown (1966)  

A juvenile Ladder Snake crawls between a captive outlaw and the lawman who tied him up. The outlaw tricks the lawman into thinking he was bitten by a snake by pricking him with a sharp object he holds between his toes.
The Big Gundown
Black Moon (1975) 

In a world where an army of men fights an army of women, a young girl on a surreal journey encounters several snakes, including a pair of mating Western Whip Snakes that she finds under a rock.
Black Moon

The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968)

Fu Manchu makes an army of beautiful female assassins by forcing venomous snakes to bite them. The women develop venomous lips which can kill a man with a kiss.

I don't know the species of all of the species of snake we see, but some of them might be Brazilian rainbow boas.

The Blood of Fu Manchu
Castle of Blood (Danza Macabra) (1964) 

A ghost vampire decapitates an unknown species of snake to prove to a skeptic that there is life after death.


Castle of Blood
Cheaper By the Dozen (2003)

An unusual and unknown species of snake brought to a boy's birthday party as a present, escapes, causing widespread panic, because people are stupid.

Cheaper By the Dozen
Cold Creek Manor (2003)

A snake gets in the pool and then somebody fills a house with snakes to terrorize a family. One of the snakes is the "blairi" color morph Gray-banded Kingsnake, aka an alterna.
Cold Creek Manor

The Craft (1996)  

Snakes appear throughout this movie about four high school witches, including thousands of snakes that are conjured to torment one of the girls. Some of the snakes used are not common in movies, including the green tree boa seen in the picture to the right.

The Craft
D
Dark Tide (1994) 

We see lots of sea snakes in this movie, in the ocean, collected for their venom, crawling over naked bodies, and used as weapons.
Dark Tide
Death Curse of Tartu (1966)

We see a Seminole man pick up a Florida Kingsnake from the ground, an uncommon snake in the real world and even more rare in the movies.
Screenshot
E
Eva Nera (Black Cobra) (1976) 

Eva dances with snakes, eats them, and kills people with them. Some of them are not common in movies, including some kind of green vine snake shown here.
Eva Nera
F
G
H
The Hellbenders (The Cruel Ones) (1967)

A snake spooks some horses so it gets shot to death. The snake might be a juvenile Aesculapian snake. Whatever it is, it's not a common movie snake.
The Hellbenders
I
I Dreamed of Africa (2000) 

A boy has many encounters with snakes after moving to Africa, puts together a collection of snakes and becomes an amateur herpetologist, but dies of snakebite. We see several species of African snakes that are not common in movies.
I Dreamed of Africa
J
Jackass Forever (2022)

A rattlesnake and a rat snake are used to traumatize participants in this gross-out comedy. A live rat snake is used in the biting scene. Rat snakes are very common, but for some reason we don't see many of them in movies. Maybe because they like to bite noses, as we see here.
Snake Screenshot
Jurassic World (2015)

Snake DNA from snakes in a lab is part of the recipe for disaster at a dinosaur wildlife safari park and petting zoo. We see several albino snakes of unidentified species in glass cages.
Jurassic World
K
L

Labyrinth (1986) 

The Goblin King turns his crystal ball into a snake then throws it around the neck of a teenage girl. The snake appears to be a banded watersnake.

Labyrinth
The Lady Eve (1941)  

Henry Fonda is an ophiologist who leaves his Amazon expedition with a pet Brazilian Glass Snake that becomes a continuing gag in the comedy. The snake is actually a Long-nosed Snake.

The Lady Eve
Leolo (1993)  

Leolo has a collection of critters in his basement, including a yellow-bellied racer.
Leolo
Live and Let Die (1973)  

A criminal gang uses Voodoo cult assassins to kill people with snakes, including some species of green tree python seen here. Bond finds a snake in his bathroom and burns it to death with a makeshift flame thrower.
Live and Let Die
M
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)  

A gyro helicopter pilot uses an Australian Carpet Python to guard his flying machine.
Mad Max 2
Mademoiselle (1966)

An Italian woodcutter keeps a snake under his shirt until he needs to take it out to impress the ladies. The snake appears to be a Four-lined snake, Europe's largest nonvenomous snake.
Mademoiselle
Marketa Lazarova (1967)   

 A man lying in a field with his girl is bitten by the proverbial snake in the grass. The snake is a Common European Viper (or Common European Adder).
Marketa Lazarova
May December (2023)

A middle-aged woman uses a snake to seduce a young boy in a pet store in a scene from a movie about a child-rapist. The snake is a Corn Snake, a very common snake in the pet trade, but not often seen in movies.

Screenshot
Medicine Man (1992)

A newcomer to the Amazon is scared of a snake hanging from a beam in her hut. The snake is some type of boa not common in movies, but we never get a very good look at it.
Medicine Man
The Mighty Quinn (1989) 

Snakes from the local witch's collection are used to kill people. One is a Corn Snake, but I don't recognize the species of other snakes, but none appears to be a common movie snake.
The Mighty Quinn
Minari (2020)

A boy throws rocks at a snake until his grandmother teaches him not to. The snake is one of the large eastern Rat Snakes, which are not often used in movies.
Screenshot
Mountaintop Motel Massacre (1983)

We see several snakes in the movie, including a Mud Snake, a species not often seen on the silver screen.
Snake Movie Screenshot
N
The New World (2005)  

A green snake on a Native American's head painted black makes very nice jewelry. It's probably one of the North American green snakes, neither of which is used much in movies.
The New World
O
Outback (2019)

American tourists lost in the Australian outback encounter deadly snakes, including a Black-headed Python, a native Australian snake.
Screenshot
P
Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)  

Pee Wee rescues some disgusting gartersnakes from a pet shop fire then faints from the horror of it. Gartersnakes are very common but not in movies, probably because of their small size.
The Born Fighter

Prisoners (2013)

A detective looking for abducted children opens some storage boxes and finds some of them full of snakes. The snakes seem to be mostly an assortment of different kinds of rat snakes and corn snakes with some other species mixed in such as a ribbon snake or garter snake, none of which are very typical movie snakes.

Prisoners
Q
R
The Red Pony (1949)

A young boy collects frogs and snakes in his school lunch box. We see a small green snake, probably a Rough Green Snake.


The Red Pony
Resurrection (1980) 

A woman pets a two-headed snake then develops miraculous healing powers.The snake is a Pine Snake, which is uncommon in movies, and the extra head makes it even rarer.
Resurrection
S
Savage Sam (1963)

A snake spotted crawling on the ground near a snapping turtle is interpreted to mean that a rain storm is on the way, shortly before it starts pouring rain. The snake is a Desert Kingsnake.
Screenshot
Sheshnaag (1990)

Pritam and Bano are two wish-fullfilling snakes who have changed into human form. They are pursued by the demon Aghori who wants to catch them and make himself immortal. Bhola, a snake worshipper, helps them escape, so they protect him and his sister. Some of the snakes in the movie are cobras, pretty common in movies, but therre are other obviously harmless Indian species that are less common.
Sheshgnaag
Shoot the Living and Pray for the Dead (1971)

A woman hostage of a band of outlaws making for Mexico lies down on a blanket to take a nap. A snake crawls up to her but the hero of the movie quickly shoots its head off. The fat wrinkly slow-moving snake is one of the most unusual snakes I've ever seen in a movie. It might be some kind of North African Sand Boa, but I'm not sure.
Shoot the Living and Pray For the Dead Screenshot
Shotgun Stories (2007)

A man uses a Cottonmouth to kill a dog that belongs to his half brother, and doing so, escalates a family feud to violence and bloodshed. We see shots of a real Cottonmouth, though not near any of the actors, which is uncommon. Most movies use non-venomous water snakes to portray Cottonmouths.
Shotgun Stories
Silent Venom (Sea Snakes) (2009)

A bunch of extra-deadly mutated snakes are brought onto a submarine.
A lot of harmless pet snakes are used, including corn snakes, albino corn snakes, milk snakes, albino milk snakes, pythons, king snakes, and indigo snakes, most of them fairly unusual snakes to see in a movie.
Silent Venom
Snakes (Snake/Serpent of Death) 2018

An expedition to an uninhabited island to searh for a plant with miraculous healing powers encounters giant monster snakes.We see a couple of real live snakes, in the classroom and on the tree, both of which might be Banded Red Snakes, which are common in east Asia but not so common in movies.
Screenshot
Soldier (1998) 

A supersoldier is left for dead on a planet used as a garbage dump that's also filled with dangerous snakes. They use a good assortment of fake and live snakes here, including ball pythons, green tree boas, milk snakes, Burmese pythons, a gray-banded kingsnake, and probably a mountain kingsnake and a corn snake or two.
Soldier
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (2003)

A boy tortures a snake and an old monk is re-incarnated as a snake. One of the snakes appears to be a Korean Tiger Keelback (aka Oriental Tiger Snake.)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
T
The Thief of Bagdad (1924) 

A snake kept in an orb on top of a scepter is used as a murder weapon.
The snake looks like either a Long-nosed Snake or a small California Kingsnake, we don't see it very well. Long-noses snakes are uncommon in movies, but Cal Kings are often used.
Thief of Baghdad
Ticket to Paradise (2022)

A man is bitten by a sea snake while proposing to a woman in a cave in Bali.
Snake Movie Screenshot
A Touch of Sin (Tian zhu ding) (2013) 

A woman sits on display inside an open glass box with snakes at her feet outside it that I can't identify.
A Touch of Sin
Turkey Shoot (Escape 2000) (1982)

A prisoner in a re-education camp is set free to be hunted to the death by a hunter. When she ducks into a hole to hide from her hunter, she finds a corpse with a snake crawling out of the skull. The snake is some species of Australian python.
Turkey Shoot
U
Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)

An American woman fixing up a house in Italy sees a snake crawl in her bedroom window. The snake is most likely one native to Italy, possibly a whip snake.
Under The Tuscan Sun
U.S. Marshals (1998)

A fugitive on the lam rows a boat past a snake on a branch in a swamp. The snake is a Red-bellied Mud Snake which I've never seen before in a movie.
Screenshot
V
Virgin Sacrifice (Fury of the Jungle) (1959)

Snakes are shown realistically as a normal part of the Central American jungle, but they're also used absurdly as weapons thrown into a snake pit to kill someone. Some of the snakes are Boa Constrictors, often used in movies, but others are not so common.
3 Idiots
Voyager (Homo Faber) (1991) 

A snake crawls onto a sleeping woman and bites her, proving that all snakes want to do is kill people. The snake we see in the movie is a harmless snake, probably a Four-lined Snake.
Voyager
W
We Bought a Zoo (2011) 

Scarlet Johannsen shows off her snake-handling skills after some newly-arrived zoo snakes escape their shipping box then just sit around all night waiting to be captured the next morning. Several species of snakes are used, including some farily common movies like bal pythons, corn snakes, gopher snakes, garter snakes, maybe a boa constrictor, but there are also some less common snakes including slbinos. albino snakes of some species I can't ID.
We Bought A Zoo
The White Balloon (1995) 

A 7-year-old girl is harassed by snake charmers. I don't recognize most of the snakes in the movie, but there appears to be a horned viper which is not common in movies.
The White Balloon
X

Xtro (1982)

A young boy's pet snake escapes from its cage and falls into a salad where it is dressed, tossed, then hammered to death. The snake could be a not-very-often seen North American gartersnake, but it might also be a Grass Snake, which is fairly common in European movies.

Xtro Screenshot
Y
Yellowneck (1955)

Civil War Confederate soldier deserters hike through the Florida Everglades where they encounter snakes, including a "nest" of rattlesnakes whose only purpose seems to be hanging around waiting to kill them. We see some Eastern Diamond-backed Rattlesnakes, which are not as common as the western rattlesnake species in movies, but we also see a yellow rat snake which is uncommon.
Yellowneck
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