Movie
Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent
Narrative tropes
Revenge Is Sweet
highAlan's entire second-act motivation is personal vengeance for Becky's hit-and-run death. Official justice is structurally absent — the college group fled with no accountability — making supernatural vengeance the only option. The Kulev Serpent hunting the group one by one is framed as the story's central spectacle, presented as satisfying rather than disturbing. Alan suffers no apparent moral consequences for re-summoning the creature.
About this trope: Vengeance is portrayed as justified, satisfying, and morally righteous. The audience is invited to cheer as the protagonist destroys those who wronged them.
Violence Gets Results
highNo negotiation or non-violent recourse is attempted at any point; Alan goes directly from grief to summoning a lethal supernatural creature. The plot's entire engine is physical destruction — the serpent killing the college group sequentially. Nick Kirabo's value is explicitly his combat expertise (Army Special Ops, expert hunter). Resolution is framed as defeating the serpent through force, not dialogue or systemic remedy.
About this trope: The central conflict is ultimately resolved through physical force rather than negotiation, diplomacy, or systemic change. Talking fails; fighting works.
Cultural messages
The Military Are Heroes
mediumNick Kirabo is introduced specifically through his military pedigree (Army Special Operations veteran) and framed as 'the only figure' capable of confronting the threat — a problem beyond any civilian's ability to handle. His long-running solo vigil tracking the serpent codes him as selflessly dedicated. The college students are entirely helpless without him, and his military-honed skills are the sole competency presented as sufficient against the creature.
About this message: The military, intelligence agencies, or law enforcement are portrayed as fundamentally noble, heroic, and necessary. Service members are brave and selfless. Military force is justified and effective.
Movies that share these tropes
Full plot (spoilers)
In the rural American South, a young boy named Alan and his friend Becky steal a mysterious wooden box from their voodoo-practicing neighbor. Inside is a Kulev Stick — a powerful ancient African talisman originally created by an African priest to channel supernatural revenge. When Alan draws with the stick, a giant serpent is summoned and kills his abusive, drunken father. Terrified by what he has unleashed, Alan buries the box in the garden, and the monstrous serpent lies dormant in a nearby sugar cane field. Twenty years later, Alan has married Becky. While planting flowers to mark the death of Alan's mother, Becky digs up the buried box and pockets the Kulev Stick. That same day, a group of five rowdy college friends are tearing through the countryside in a monster truck, drinking and making noise. Their driver accidentally strikes and kills Becky, mistaking her for an animal, and the group drives off without stopping. Alan witnesses the hit-and-run and, grief-stricken and furious, retrieves the stick and draws with it again, re-summoning the Kulev Serpent to take revenge. The reawakened creature begins hunting the college group one by one. The only figure standing between the monster and the young survivors is Nick Kirabo, an Army Special Operations veteran and expert hunter who has long been tracking Lockjaw and has been waiting for the serpent to resurface.
Sources: IMDb plot summary (search snippet), TMDb overview