Featured DVD Review: Mongolian Death Worm

April 25, 2011

Mongolian Death Worm - Buy from Amazon

This is the third SyFy channel original movie I've reviewed, in the past three weeks. The previous two were quite bad. Will Mongolian Death Worm prove that the third time's a charm? Or will it prove bad things come in threes?

The Movie

The film is set in Mongolia, obviously, and starts at an experimental oil drilling facility that is having serious problems with their gear. Not only is this reducing production, it is also interfering with a little side deal the boss, Patrick (Drew Waters), has with a local crime boss, Kowlan. Almost as soon as the boss leaves, one of his lackeys gets eaten by a giant worm.

We cut to Daniel (Sean Patrick Flanery) being chased by Kowlan's men only to be rescued when he runs into Timur (George Cheung), the local police. Daniel is a treasure hunter who is sure he's onto something huge. He's looking for the tomb of Genghis Khan, which, according to legend, was protected by giant worms.

We then cut to a small village dealing with an epidemic but the medicine hasn't arrived yet. One of the elderly victims says it was caused by death worms. Alicia (Victoria Pratt), a member of Doctors for Hope, was supposed to deliver the medicine, but the jeep broke down. But look who shows up, Daniel. Of course, he's not just going to give them a ride for free. Turns out even "free" would have been too much, as Daniel's jeep breaks down and the three are then captured by Kowlan's men.

In the meantime, we get a lot of talking. When you are making a movie called Mongolian Death Worm, you need a lot of action. You need a lot of B-movie action, because with a title like that, no one will be able to take it seriously. Go the goofy route like Sharktopus, because it's a lot more forgivable to be silly than it is to be dull. This movie is dull. It spends far too much time talking about drilling equipment and epidemics and not enough time showing people being eaten by worms. Hell, I would have been satisfied if the film spent more time dealing with the treasure hunting and the film was a Goonies meets Tremors hybrid.

Speaking of Tremors, I think whoever designed these worms had recently watched that movie, except these worms don't look as cool. Also, they don't look nearly as dangerous as they lumber around. I can't imagine anyone not being able to outrun these things. At least with Tremors the creatures were fast and damn near bulletproof. With the Mongolian variety, all you need to do is say bullet and it's dead. Burt and Heather Gummer alone would have been able to take out the entire nest of these worms.

So to sum it all up, the plot is mostly filler, the worms look like cheap computer animation, they are not at all threatening, there are not enough attacks, the attacks that do happen are repetitive... I think that's it.

The Extras

There are no extras on the DVD.

The Verdict

Mongolian Death Worm is the latest SyFy channel original movie to hit the home market, and it won't be the last. I would like to say they are getting better, but that's just not the case. Maybe the next one I get will be worth checking out, but this DVD is skippable.


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