The trailer for the restart of Anaconda misses the point of what made the original a classic cult

“Anaconda” by Luis Llosa is a classic cult which is not supposed to be taken seriously. It is a luscious action-harness film on a giant snake causing a chaos for a shooting team played by Owen Wilson, Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube (which are all excellent, BTW) on the Amazon river. “Anaconda” is funny, of course, but it is also an underestimated monster film with effective snake fears. The ridiculous elements are played with a right face, which actually makes it funnier. The same cannot be said about the restart, because its trailer indicates that this film is missing the point of “Anaconda”.

The 2025 “Anaconda” features Jack Black and Paul Rudd as life friends who grew up by loving the original film of 1997. Now, knowing a mid-life crisis, they head for the Amazon to make a micro-bunda remake, only to put themselves on the wrong side of a real Anaconda which could be willing to cooperate with their artistic vision. Is the metal element in fact quite interesting in theory, but is the joke too obvious?

Cue the buffoon humor that we expect from the film Noir and Rudd, as well as the musical samples of “Baby Got Back” by Sir Mix-A-Lot (can you guess which line the trailer uses?), And what you have is just another current horror comedy. It is not a bad thing, in itself, but “anaconda” deserves more than that.

It is difficult to find a perfect balance between horror and comedy, so nobody can blame the new “anaconda” for having laughed. That said, it is also symptomatic of a tendency in modern horror where too many films with ridiculous premises must make fun of their own ironic elements – as if they begged us to laugh at them instead of letting the stupidity inherent speak of itself. If you have to reinvent a perfect film like “Anaconda”, then try at least to capture the tone and stylistic elements that make the original so great.

Be careful, that does not mean that the restart of “Anaconda” does not seem pleasant. The scene where the character raw by Jack Black is used as bait is funny, and any film featuring him and Paul Rudd as Besties is guaranteed to be pleasant. However, watching this trailer makes me ask me what a filmmaker like Xavier people could do with this concept. His shark film at the top of Netflix “Under Paris” is an excellent example of how to make a luscious creature functionality with just the good amount of seriousness, and it’s very fun. “Anaconda” will probably be a great pleasure in the crowd, and I wish her all the success in the world, but everyone should also review the original for the ultimate giant film experience.

The new “Anaconda” slips into theaters on December 25, 2025.