Cottonmouth

• Directed by Brock Harris
• November 4, 2025 (US)

A man framed and condemned to a territorial prison in the old West must learn how to be an outlaw and escape to get his revenge.

At a little better than 90 minutes, Cottonmouth does its best to keep things tight and not waste time. It does its best to tell an interesting story of a framed man seeking revenge while also working to save his would-be bride. It should be a straightforward film but an attempt to make it weird hurts the movie.

I had some issues like the casting of Ron Perlman as Warden Victor Cain. Perlman is a great character actor and always a welcome addition to any cast. Supposedly Cain runs a territorial prison, but we only see a wooden box for tormenting prisoners and a room that could be ANY room. What is so special about the character? He and the only other person we see working there fatten prisoners up only to release them so they can be hunted and eaten.

It is a portion of the movie that is meant to forge the main character into a tougher and harder man but that doesn’t really fit. It’s like director Brock Harris was going out of his way for something weird and disturbing in a basic revenge tale portrayed in a movie that has many earmarks of a more traditional Western. It does explain where he gets the name ‘cottonmouth’ from though any number of less extreme reasons could have been conjured that fit better with the overall aesthetic of the story.

No insult to Esai Morales as Abe, but currently Perlman is the bigger name. If you’re going to cast a relatively large celebrity in comparison to the rest of the actors, then they should contribute something worthy and significant to the plot and I don’t think Perlman did that. He did fine and elevated what he had. It’s just that he was there to give his credentials to boost the aura of the production rather than let the quality of the production speak for itself. Save yourself money and find a quality actor to do whatever you want so you can make it look like a prison.

Our central figure Ed Dantes (Martin Sensmeier) is framed by his saddle buddy Frank Ferri (Jonathan Sadowski)-whom he knows under another name-as Frank Ferris with the help of unscrupulous bounty hunter Billy Dunn (Eric Nelsen). The opening scene clearly states that Ed and Frank have known each other for quite some time. Dunn’s dialogue indicates there would not be much time for them to know each other. This needed something beyond dialogue to clear that up. I did enjoy the twist of the frame with Frank and Dunn conspiring together but it does not make up for the relationship questions and a need to make Cottonmouth weird over making sense.

I really liked the idea of Frank insinuating himself into Ed’s life only to set him up to be Frank. That implies he believes people are hot on his trail with no idea of what he looks like. Billy has a picture undermining what they appeared to be going for. Nelsen-as-Dunn gave the villain’s muscle the personality of an egotistical redneck and the actor behind him made him feel like a threat rather than cannon fodder.

You know those fun heist movies where there is some perhaps complicated plot to screw over the villain? The climax of the story has many aspects of that as Cottonmouth and a gang (possibly the James Gang) he has stumbled across insinuate themselves into the town and saloon during a masquerade ball which is a bit of a contrast to the cannibal prison warden.

One of the nicer touches in this film is that the masks worn during the masquerade all hinted at the characters. Frank was wearing a devil mask while Cottonmouth was wearing what looks kind of like a snake mask.

Of course the hero fights to make a comeback and rally some troops to help him. All through the movie he has been fighting to get back to his love Sophia (Alyssa Wapanatâhk), a saloon singer, who has been tormented and raped by Frank and now carries his child. After everything they have both gone through she loves him but does not love what he has become so they cannot be together. What kind of nonsensical double talk is that?! 

Reportedly this was inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo. Not sure about that but it tries so very hard to keep things convoluted and edgy or look deep rather than play it straight. The basics for a good film is in the opener but it hurts itself by trying too hard.

Cottonmouth does have some entertainment to it but tries far too hard. It wanted artful and strange rather than to tell a good story. I was entertained but left wanting.