Can't say I had exactly high hopes for this, but it's even more disappointing coming from the director whose previous movie (also a Netflix original) was the decent and effortful "1922". "Rattlesnake" knows exactly what it is, but it doesn't try to excel at it at all.
For the most part "Rattlesnake" feels like an uninspiring slow-burn, a familiar tale of a familiar dilemma explored only vaguely as if the filmmakers behind this were uninvested and half asleep. You know when you start cleaning up your room but give up halfway through? That's how "Rattlesnake" felt like. Some of the qualities include a good main performance by Carmen Ejogo (who tries her best while portraying a character in search of any real personality), a story that holds potential (but instead chooses the uninventive, watered down approach) arguably good cinematography (which kinda wears down with time by just not changing, impressing, surprising) & an original score that goes from seemingly effective to either repetitive or feeling like it's been wasted on this movie. Both the script and the direction is bland and comes off as simply not very smart. The pacing's very even throughout and also very slow, it doesn't quite pick up at the end either.
I believe "Rattlesnake" is a fine friday flick, but I can't put this anywhere above average, because in the end it feels more like just another filler for the mass market of movies on digital media than it feels like a sophisticated, well crafted and entertaining thriller/horror movie. My rating: 5/10.
