Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent (a.k.a. Carnivorous) is a 2008 horror film directed by Amir Valinia starring DMX, Wes Brown, Louis Herthum, and Lauren Fain.
In the countryside, the boy Alan and his friend Becky steal a creepy wooden box with a powerful voodoo stick inside from his voodooistic neighbor. When the boy draws with the stick, his drunken father is attacked by a snake and vanishes. Years later, Alan and Becky are married to each other; while planting some flowers to commemorate the death of Alan's mother, Becky finds the box buried in the garden and she keeps the stick in her pocket. Meanwhile, five friends are traveling in a monster truck, drinking beer. The driver accidentally runs over Becky, but believes he had hit an animal. When Alan witnesses the hit-and-run and sees his wife dead, he uses the stick seeking revenge against the youngsters.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Alan's father is an alcoholic who physically abuses his wife and son.
- Alcoholic Parent: Alan's father is a drunk who physically abuses his wife and son.
- Antagonist Title: "Lockjaw" is the nickname Sarge gave to the serpent as a kid.
- Arms Dealer: Sarge has some sort of business relationship with a gang of redneck arms dealers, which explains why he has a bazooka in his house when he needs one.
- Asshole Victim: The incident that triggers the plot is the protagonists' running over someone. The major difference between these teens and the teens from I Know What You Did Last Summer? They never noticed they hit anyone and when pointed out that they did, they believe they hit an animal and moved on. Kiiiiinda makes one of the protagonist's What the Hell, Hero? speech towards the villain of the film stupid considering they were the ones that caused him to do it in the first place.
- Catapult Nightmare: The present day portion of the movie begins with the adult Alan sitting bolt upright in bed after a nightmare reliving the night of his father's death.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: None of the kids' cell phones can get a signal at the shack in the swamp.
- Cow Tools: What on earth is that device that Kelly constructs out of a lamp and some cutlery supposed to be? He carries all the way through the final hunt for the monster, and it serves no appreciable purpose whatsoever.
- Crazy-Prepared: Winston is savvy enough to have brought a spare set of car keys with him, and to intuit that everyone's Cell Phones Are Useless. This doesn't stop him from charging off alone into a cane field in the middle of the night, but he is one of the characters who survive.
- Dangerous Key Fumble: Alan's father leaves the house drunk, unaware that he has just been cursed by his son. As he tries to open his truck, he drops his keys and while he is searching for them, is bitten on the hand by a snake. Which turns out to be a harmless grass snake. While he is laughing about this, he is devoured by the giant serpent.
- Dead Hat Shot: When Sam and Kelly go searching for Kurt, they find his crushed and bloodstained baseball cap. Sam comments that Kurt never takes that thing off.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Kurt runs over Becky because he is looking down at Ashley's ass as she bends over the beer cooler.
- Extremely Short Timespan: Excluding the prologue, the film covers slightly less than 24 hours.
- Flashback Nightmare: The film opens when Alan and Becky were kids, and shows the events around the theft of the voodoo stick and the death of Alan's father. At the end of this sequence, it is revealed that this is a nightmare that the adult Alan is experiencing, that he wakes from with a start.
- Headphones Equal Isolation: Becky fails to hear the monster truck that kills her approaching because she is wearing headphones while she collects the mail.
- Lost in the Maize: A southern variant. Kurt gets lost is a field of sugar cane while searching for Sam. He gets grabbed by the serpent and dragged away.
- Matchlight Danger Revelation: Clayton is killed while having sex with Ashley. Ashley initially thinks Clay has come prematurely and, when the serpent pulls him off her, she lights to lighter to have a cigarette. In the light of the lighter flame, she sees her boyfriend impaled upon the tail of giant snake. She screams and drops the lighter, which goes out.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The opening scene shows Alan and Becky as kids, stealing the voodoo. After Alan's father is dragged away by the serpent, it cuts to the adult Alan waking from a nightmare of these events.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Lockjaw is a giant snake with the head of an alligator. According to Sarge, it is an African spirit that has gradually adapted itself as it has encountered new animals in the New World.
- My God, What Have I Done?: This is Alan's reaction when he wakes from his bender and sees the drawing of the teens in the monster truck, only to discover that one of the figures has now been coloured in red.
- Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: The film opens with young Alan listening to his parents argue. As he does so, he scrawls over a drawing of his family with heavy black crayon. Later that night, he uses the voodoo stick to draw a picture of his father being eaten by a giant snake.
- Out with a Bang: The serpent kills Clayton by stabbing its tail through his chest from behind while he is screwing Ashley. She initially thinks he has come prematurely.
- Plot-Triggering Death: When Alan witnesses the hit-and-run and sees his wife Becky dead, he uses the voodoo stick seeking revenge against the youngsters.
- Right Through His Pants: Ashley and Clayton are having passionate sex when Clay is killed by the serpent and yanked off her. Ashley jumps out of bed still clad in her hot pink bra and panties.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Lockjaw is a giant snake with the head of an alligator. As a magical spirit of vengeance, it will not stop once it has been summoned until it has killed those it was summoned to punish.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Lockjaw is a giant snake with the head of an alligator. As a magical spirit of vengeance, it will not stop once it has been summoned until it has killed those it was summoned to punish.
- Swallowed Whole: Kelly stands still and allows himself to be swallowed whole by Lockjaw in order to allow Sarge to get a clear shot at the giant serpent. Fortunately for Kelly, once killed the serpent dissolves around him, leaving him intact (if slimy).
- Sword Sparks: Alan discovers that the drawing done with the voodoo becomes physically indestructible when he tries to hack it to pieces with a knife, and the blade strikes sparks from the paper.
- Tail Slap: The serpent kills Clayton by stabbing its tail through his chest from behind while he is screwing Ashley.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: A drunk Ashley does a striptease for Kurt and Clayton, that is interrupted when Sam returns and is not pleased to see Ashley stripping for her boyfriend Kurt. Later, Ashley does another for Clayton alone before they have sex.
