"Vic Rondelli" (Harry Hamlin) is the new Fire Chief for the small town of San Catalona and on the first day at his job a teenage boy is bitten and killed by a rattlesnake. Although the rattlesnake managed to escape Vic is surprised at how fast the venom took effect. Not long afterward six or seven rattlesnakes are found in the crawlspace of a new home but before Vic has a chance to examine any of them a real estate developer named "Max Farrington" (Jack Scalia) has them killed and quickly burned. Concerned about this sudden appearance of such aggressive rattlesnakes Vic attempts to take certain proactive measures but is thwarted at every opportunity by Max—even as the death toll rises. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that, although the plot greatly resembled the film "Rattled" which was produced three years earlier, this was a still a decent movie none-the-less. It had good suspense and some solid performances by Jack Scalia, Shannon Sturges (as Max Farrington's assistant "Mandy Stratford") and Harry Hamlin. Again, while this movie was hardly unique it still wasn't too bad and for that reason I rate it as about average.

In 1979, a rare breed of rattle snake – naturally, a more ferocious variety than the typical species – is set loose after the truck carrying it overturns. After fatally striking both the occupants of the crash, it then descends on a disused mine shaft where it breeds with regular rattlesnakes, and 20 years later the effects of this lethal concoction are awoken by a housing development. Harry Hamlin is the new fire chief whose first day on the job sees him dealing with a fatal snake bite, after a pair of juveniles frolicking in a thicket stumble on a specimen. From there, matters deteriorate as locals are overcome by a plethora of the new breed, the venom from which is more deadly than any known to man, and predictably, for which no serum currently exists. A herpetologist is enlisted but with the local economy's purse strings being controlled by greedy developer (Scalia), action is far from swift or decisive. So, inevitably, several bystanders quickly become victims until Scalia decides to take matters into his own hands, with disastrous results.Not bad for a tele-movie, with capable performances and well conceived sub plots. McCormack as the local snake enthusiast comes off best, in spite of her whacky idea to address the problem by introducing more snakes, while Scalia plays a remarkably restrained villain, whose worst trait is being unethical moreover than exhibiting any overtly sinister behaviour. The blossoming romance between Hamlin and Sturges offers gentle respite in the film's troughs, and generally speaking, the show moves along with reasonable momentum and pace. While the special effects aren't all that special, director Nosseck still manages to build the suspense and an effective balance between storyline and detail. Perhaps the only real faux pas is the film's title – unless fitted with a silencer, one would assume that rattlesnakes indeed rattle, and would therefore only be silent to the hearing impaired.A sharp eye for detail will reveal that the location is clearly not the USA in which the picture is set, but actually Queensland, Australia, as such the peripheral cast will be familiar to Australian audiences with familiar faces in bit parts and some supporting roles. Not movie of the week material, but competent within in its own limitations and definitely worth a look for those who don't suffer from snake phobia.

"Silent Predators" is a perfectly fine, if slightly clichéd entry.**SPOILERS**Arriving in San Catalano, California, Vic Rondelli, (Harry Hamlin) takes over the new fire chief and is immediately put off by Max Farrington, (Jack Scalia) owner of a nearby housing development. When a strange death shakes the community, he tries to investigate the incident only to be stone-walled out. Managing to get employee Mandy Stratford, (Shannon Sturges) onto his side by managing to capture a specimen, which Dr. Matthew Watkins, (Phillip Troy Linger) finds it to be a mixture between two different kinds of poisonous snakes. Using that to try to stop construction for fear of disturbing the snakes, it fails and results in more deaths around town, forcing them into a plan of action that will deal with the deadly snakes once and for all.The Good News: This one wasn't that bad at times. One of the better things about it is the fact that there's a lot of great encounters with the creatures. There's a pretty nice amount of snake attacks that occur through this one, and most of them are pretty good. The attack in the home on the exercise machine is really good, being nicely creepy with a wonderfully funny and ironic conclusion, and the baseball game attack is pretty good for the chaos it unleashes. There's also the non-lethal attack on the home where the snake prowls along after it's victims, only to be snuck up on itself and killed, which is really tense since it's mostly shot through the snake's POV and it comes off really nice. There's also the film's best stalking scene, where the couple off in the woods are trying to capture a specimen, as the wood-land setting gives off a creepy presence and there's some tense moments trying to get the creatures caught. It's at it's best, though, when it features the escape attempt, as the forest comes alive with the rattling of the snakes resulting in a thrilling chase to get out alive, coming complete with a strike against them as well. The ending is also really good, as there's some fine combinations of action, tension and suspense with the race to get out before the slowly-approaching snakes for a fun sequence. The last positive is the use of real snakes in here as it really easily could've been a bunch of CGI, though the fact that the snakes being of completely different species something to determine on their own. These here are the film's good parts.The Bad News: There wasn't much wrong with this one. The main flaw here is the fact that this one's PG-13 rating. This one is really hampered by that, as there's some things that just can't be done in a creature feature with that rating. It can't feature any kind of violence at all, which this one is really devoid of as it restricts it's kills mainly to a lung from the offending snake onto a body part and then using the venom to kill, with the creature not even in the same shot. Oftentimes, this results in sequences where there's no obvious contact at all. There's a plethora of scenes like that, not offering much in the form of these kinds of scenes that are based around what can happen in the PG-13 rating. This one also manages to be it's most flawed when it comes to how clichéd it is. This is a film that consists of scene after scene that you've seen in at least twenty other movies. Among the scenes repeated are a deadly snake being transported in a wooden crate on the back of a flat-bed truck, where the truck crashes and rolls, smashing the crate and releasing the deadly snake, the businessman who has invested all his money in a housing development learns that his project may be infested by giant killer snakes and tries to hush the situation up so as not to put his investment at risk, and the plot-point where, after learning the mayor of the town is in cahoots with the businessman, refusing to take action about the snakes so as not to threaten the financial development of the town, the mayor's young son is the next person whose life is threatened. That's merely the tip of the iceberg in here, as it takes a special kind of film that cares enough about the traditions of creature feature genre to make a movie this clichéd. These here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: Not exactly anything that's too harmful, unless the clichés bother you, which isn't a big deal but does harm it somewhat. Recommended to those looking for such a creature feature, another entry for a killer-snake marathon or those who find it interesting, while those who don't should heed caution.Rated PG-13: Violence and Language

Twenty years ago there was a car accident one night in a small southern California town San Catalano where a crate of tropical rattlesnakes escaped into the area. Now the area is experiencing a boom in housing development, and this has disrupted the nest of these deadly predators. Vic Rondell the new fire chief has just arrived, and when one snake attack after another occurs. He goes about trying to discover why the sudden attacks, but the greedy property developer Max Farrington doesn't want to start a panic and tries his best to get Rondell on the wrong side of the community. So it's left up to a tainted Vic and Farrington's business associate Mandy Stratford to put a stop to it.Routine, repetitive and lame creatures run amok TV b-feature. Not that I think it's the complete pits, but everything that happens here has been done to death. Even in the film itself! It's always the same actions occurring over and over again. Not helping out is that it's not bad enough to be hilarious, of course stupidity fills nearly every moment and everything about it is clumsy. However it doesn't have that schlock presence or any sense of fun. The low-rent script (supposedly written by John Carpenter in the 70s) throws a bit of everything into the contrived premise, but in the long run it's a poisonous venture that's witless and incredibly textbook stuff. Director Noel Nosseck does a real nothing job with it, and makes sure you're in for something of extreme blandness, poor pacing and tired false jumps. While the deaths are mostly random there's no suspense, nor thrills. Nothing is sustained or delivered, because they are poorly staged and too goofy to have any sort of effect. While the obnoxious score gets in the way. A special mention though, at least they didn't succumb to digital effects for the snakes. We even get some snake vision, using a red filter. Strange the title actually makes no sense, since we're talking about rattlesnakes here. The no-frills performances are your standard mould found in these features and so are their stock characters. A dopey looking Harry Hamlin is here to save the day! Dominic Purcell and an animal loving Patty McCormack also feature in minor parts.Formulaic and unexciting is what it ends up being.