Rattlesnake is a 2019 horror film starring Carmen Ejogo and Theo Rossi.
Katrina Ridgeway (Carmen Ejogo) is a single mother whose daughter is bitten by a rattlesnake while driving though Texas. Desperate for help, she goes into an trailer where she meets a mysterious woman who miraculously heals her daughter and explains that payment will be discussed later. When Katrina drives her daughter to the hospital, she's soon visited by spirits who make it clear what the price is: to repay the debt, she must kill a stranger by sundown.
This film provides examples of:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Katrina kidnaps Billy at gunpoint and forces him to drive to a remote canyon, he breaks down and begs Katrina to let him live. He cries so hard that there's snot visibly coming out of his nose. However, this proves to be part of a Wounded Gazelle Gambit, even if he was channeling real fear.
- And I Must Scream: The fate of anyone who dies at the hand of whoever is making the deal with the mysterious woman. Their souls are trapped in the village forever and, seeing as every appearance of the ghosts involved intimidating Katrina into killing someone, it seems their souls are also enslaved to the woman's will as well.
- Animalistic Abomination: It's ambiguous if the titular Rattlesnake is this trope, a snake that the mysterious woman controls or a glamour the mysterious women takes the form of. Nevertheless, it's explicitly not a normal snake when it appears out of nowhere to bite Katrina's daughter or in the end when it again appears out of nowhere to bite Billy after he has a gun and is about to shoot Katrina.
- Ambiguously Brown: Billy, despite his name being anglican, has a rather swarthy complexion.
- Contrived Coincidence: In the midway point of the film, after Katrina finds herself unable to bring herself to kill a dying old man at the hospital because he has a daughter who loves him, she's given up and goes to a nearby bar. By chance, she sees a domestic abuser, making her decision much easier.
- Deal with the Devil: An extremely cruel version, as Katrina didn't knowingly enter into it. She was just desperately asking someone for help after her daughter was bitten by the titular Rattlesnake.
- Fanservice: The scene where Katrina breaks into Billy's home to kidnap him. She breaks in while he and his girlfriend are taking a shower. When he walks out of the shower, the audience is treated to a rear shot of him walking naked down a hallway, showing off his ass and his wet, toned body.
- Karma Houdini: The true villain of the movie is involved from the beginning and gets exactly what they want with no comeuppance or unforeseen stumbling blocks whatsoever.
- Race Against the Clock: Katrina only has until sunset to kill a stranger in exchange for her daughter's life.
- Scenery Porn: There are lots of slow, panning shots of the Texan desert.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Billy begging for his life the first time is a way to get Katrina to lower her guard so he can attack her. The second time he does it is completely genuine, though.
