Content warning: self harm, suicide, violence against women, gore

Katrina and her daughter Clara are starting a new life with a cross-country move. Katrina has to stop to fix a flat tire in the desert. Clara wanders away from the car and is bitten by a rattlesnake. Fortunately, there is a trailer right off the road. The woman inside promises to help Clara while Katrina fixes the tire, mentioning a debt that will need to be paid. Clara makes a full recovery by the time they get to the hospital. Suddenly, a mysterious man appears in their hospital room. He explains that Katrina must kill someone by sunset, seven hours from now, or Clara will die.

Rattlesnake is a solid paranormal horror film. It’s in that Twilight Zone/“The Monkey’s Paw” wheelhouse of cursed wishes and it doesn’t shy away from that. The premise is so familiar in pop culture that the success or failure of this kind of story is totally on execution. There might be a different focus on the timeline of the story, but it all comes down to the same boilerplate narrative on a common theme: “be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.”

Rattlesnake succeeds in style and approach. The film is beautiful. Cinematographer Roberto Schaefer casts an eerie yellow haze over every frame, slowly pulling in shades of pink and orange as the clock ticks closer to Katrina’s sunset deadline to commit murder. Editor Merlin Eden cuts Rattlesnake in the style of a Western with the beats of a thriller, which gives composer Ian Holtquist beautiful lingering moments of establishing shots to build tension and plenty of perspective shifts to hit with a strong pulse of synth bass. Costume Designer Daniela Moore’s palette is contemporary casual wear, but the colors used in Katrina and Clara’s simple clothing play with our understanding of time and tension once the clock starts ticking on the soul exchange.

Writer/director Zak Hilditch (1922) has a firm handle on how to tell this story. His twisted wish narrative becomes an exploration on the value of life and death. Rattlesnake sets up the premise as a soul for a soul to save Clara. Katrina is not the first person given this choice, but she appears to be the first person to try to take morality into her approach. She looks for people who she thinks might deserve to die.

Deserve is a rough word and the linchpin of the tension in the film. Katrina’s first instinct is to end the life of an elderly man who is on his deathbed in the hospital. He’s going to die anyway. What difference does it make if she ends his life a few moments earlier?

It makes a huge difference that Katrina wrestles with the entire film. She wants her daughter to be safe, but she doesn’t want to steal someone else’s life just to save her. There has to be a reason for all of this. It must be some kind of test with a purpose and Katrina will do anything to pass so her daughter will continue to be safe.

In some way, the soul she takes must deserve to die. How can anyone make that call? Even under mysterious magical circumstances, how could someone claim the authority to end another life? It doesn’t matter how old, unwell, or cruel the potential victim could be, Katrina has to reconcile her daughter’s survival at the cost of another life.

Rattlesnake does enough interesting things with style and theme to make it worth watching. It is a single story told well with beautiful visuals and a great tone. This does not mean it is a simple film. Zak Hilditch aims to keep you lingering in the shadows. His narrative is complete by the end, but his thematic exploration drifts in unexpected and ultimately unexplained ways. There are questions about life we will never have an answer to, so we need to settle for what we can discover and reconcile with our own lives.

Rattlesnake is currently streaming on Netflix.

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