Mongolian Death Worm – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

Lately I’ve had a rather unhealthy obsession with bad movies. Generally ones from the ’70s and ’80s are better, but I by no means limit myself to those decades when it comes to bad acting, plot holes and laughable effects. So when I saw the name Mongolian Death Worm I got really excited. Sadly, even on the level of entertainingly bad movies, this had very little to offer.

Set in Mongolia (although, it really looks more like somewhere in Southern California) an American Oil Company is having trouble at one of its plants. Locals fear it is the legendary Mongolian Death Worms, but those corporate fat cats don’t believe in such nonsense. Also, one of them has discovered Genghis Khan’s treasure chamber, which the worms are believed to guard, and wants all the riches for himself. Meanwhile a stranded nurse (Victoria Pratt) if forced to pay for a ride from a shifty bounty hunter (Sea Patrick Flanery) in order to get supplies to the cholera-ridden town where she is working.

Suddenly horrible CGI’d death worms start popping up all over the place and eating everyone that moves.

This has everything you’d expect from a bad SyFy original film. Mediocre acting, complete lack of coherent plot and character development and really bad special effects, but for some reason, this time around the elements do not come together just right to make an entertaining film. Flanery’s Han Solo inspired “scoundrel” of a character is amusing at times and at his best when he seems to channel late ’08s Michael Keaton, but other than that, no one really brings anything to the table as far as performances. Though, I must say that Nate Rubin as one of the male nurses was pretty laughably bad.

If you’re a fan of bad movies and were hoping that Mongolian Death Worm would be a good way to spend a drunken evening with some friends you might find yourself pretty disappointed. Then again, I was sober and alone when I watched it, so I might be completely wrong.

Mongolian Death Worm is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen with 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital surround and has English and Spanish subtitles. The film actually doesn’t look too bad, and I’ve seen much worse special effects in SyFy films, but it’s still nothing to write home about.

Trailers: a bunch of Lionsgate trailers.

This film easily could have thrown in some lame environmental protection theme, which would have at least given it some meaning. Sadly, this is just a waste of an hour and a half, even if you like bad movies.


Lionsgate presents Mongolian Death Worm. Directed by Steven R. Monroe. Written by Steven R. Monroe and Kevin Leeson. Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Drew Waters and Victoria Pratt. Running time: 90 minutes. Not Rated R. Released on DVD: April 26, 2011.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years