The human race is anthropocentric, which makes it easy to assume we’ve gathered enough answers to put the pieces of the natural world together. News flash- we’re not even close. More than 60% of the Amazon rainforest remains untouched and unexplored, leaving a wide-open world of warnings to uncover, as humans can’t help but mess around in places we shouldn’t. It sounds like a fun setting for horror fans to explore, but Mother Nature has something to say, and nobody ever said she had to play nice.
Beware Boiúna brings us deep into a feral jungle, where every shadow, echo, and rumble leaves the audience feeling naked and afraid. Inspired by the Brazilian legend of serpent-goddess Boiúna, Mike P. Nelson (Silent Night Deadly Night, Wrong Turn) crafts a limbless creature feature that aims to drop fans between a rock and a hard place: urban folklore vs. tangible threat. The best part? The team shot the project from the bowels of the Amazon and lived to tell the tale. Ballsy, dare I say, but effective!
The tropical nightmare’s synopsis is as follows-
A team of doctors embarks on a local mission in the Amazon rainforest, but it soon becomes clear that not everybody or everything is happy to see them. Their sudden appearance draws the attention of an animal predator, the Boiúna.
FANGORIA headed down to the Florida Everglades to catch a little more immersion. In this exclusive interview, Fango contributor Xero Gravity explores the making of Beware Boiúna with Nelson, and stars Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), and Kiana Madeira (Fear Street Trilogy). What are the takeaways of filming in a 360-degree environment? From urban legend to consequence, we uncover the details.
Beware Boiúna arrives in theatersssssss on Friday, October 2, 2026.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity.
Beware Boiúna led me down a rabbit hole where I learned that way too much of the Amazon forest is still undiscovered. I don't know how to feel about that, but for the love of the game, you guys still took your cameras there. If we forget the giant snake, the two of you guys are fighting for survival against the elements as well as the obvious threat. So I would like to know, did shooting on location affect your camera calories counted at all? Can you reflect on some of those experiences of actually being in a jungle while shooting, running for your life from the jungle?
Jessica Rothe: Oh, 100%.
Kiana Madeira: It was everything
Jessica: It was amazing. I have to say for myself, and I feel like you agree, one of the main reasons I signed up to do this movie, I was like, Mike P. Nelson? The Amazon? Where do I sign? How quickly can I get down there? But it was just so incredible being immersed in a 360 forest of horror.
Mike P. Nelson: Real deal, yeah.
Jessica: And it was just such an incredible experience. And when Mike and I talked about the movie initially, he was like, it's kind of like snake movie meets Sorcerer, which I had just seen for the first time. And it's true, you can feel and smell the sweat and the blood and the fear. And I really feel like it helped us capture that by being down there.
Kiana: I remember Mike, you saying you wanted it to feel almost like a sensory experience. When you're watching it, you feel the heat, you can smell the jungle almost. You know what I mean? And so us just being immersed in it, it really made our jobs a little bit easier. We didn't really have to fake anything at all.
Jessica: But we pounded a lot of Gatorade.
Mike: Oh, yeah.
Kiana: So much Gatorade.
Mike: A lot of electrolytes. I mean, you're just sweating. I mean, you're completely drenched. No rainfall. You are just drenched after the day.
Jess, your character, has this realization moment where she kind of sinks into reality and realizes that Boiúna is “a creature of imagination, not an imaginary creature.” I find this really interesting because, Mike, you've been digging new tunnels into horror classics for some time now, and you have a great opportunity to get the story you want with Boiúna's roots in real-world, word-of-mouth generational folklore and storytelling. So, I'm really interested to know what kind of lore you brought to the table to describe the story you wanted to tell?
Mike: So what's fun about Boiúna is she's rooted in mythology and legend and stories in that part of the world. But I mean, there's also a little bit of reality to Boiúna. She's based on a real creature that lived 50 million years ago, the Titanoboa. And so what was really cool about it was how do we weave together myth and reality and how do they overlap and how do we keep the mystery of those two things?
What is it? And that's what I want the audience to question. Wait, so is there something more to it, or is she just a giant creature that lives out in the Amazon? She's been out there for millions of years. And so I love that sort of ambiguity. And what I found going out there and digging into some of the lores, there's so many different stories of snakes out there.
And it was really fun to, in a way, look at what's there and use what's real and then find a blend of our own. And I always imagine it that it was like a tale that Lena's character learned when she lived in the jungle with the Jugwari, and that's how she knew about she decides who lives and who dies, which is something that is definitely rooted, but not necessarily said exactly that way in the lore. So it was like finding that blend of how can we create our own and use little pieces here and there and then blend in reality and then this is the story of our Boiúna.
You have a really nice harmony going on. And I was really curious what a creature feature would look like from you because you have all this space. And of course I love the classic horror cynicism of what the humans will do/human behavior when in peril, but throw a monster in there and man, I'm sold.
Mike: And that's it. That was I think the approach going in was just like, we're going to make a movie, it's going to be a scary movie in the Amazon and we're going to throw a giant snake in there. You know what I mean? And that's where I think we had so much fun because you start with such a great grounded world and such rich characters going through their own shit, with so much baggage, all trying to figure out where they belong in this life. And not only in this life, but even just in the Amazon in general. Why am I here? Why am I even doing this? And it all comes to a head, and Boiúna shows them.
Jess: Boiúna's not the only monster.
No. No, no, no.
Mike: No, absolutely not.
No, she's not. But I'm glad that the three of you made it out. And hopefully I'll see you again in some director's chair. Whatever the next terror is, I'm looking forward to it.
Mike: Well hopefully, yeah, I, for one, want to go back to the Amazon. I'd love to shoot something else there.
Kiana Rothe: Me too.
