The huge “swamp monsters” are terrifying. But watch out for those smaller pythons, too.
Those snakes can be even scarier, said filmmaker Xander Robin. Especially when they’re being hunted during the annual Florida Python Challenge.
“When it’s a big snake, obviously, it’s crazy exciting,” Robin said last year. “(But) sometimes the really, really big ones don’t fight quite as much. The ones that are, like, 10 feet are the ones that are a little faster and crazier.”
The Palm Beach County native saw those Burmese pythons firsthand — both big and small — over 10 grueling nights hanging out with amateur snake hunters in the Florida Everglades, including the Collier County portion of Big Cypress National Preserve.
The resulting 91-minute documentary, “The Python Hunt,” made the film-festival circuit last year and even won the Special Jury Prize at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas. Now it’s being shown at movie theaters across the United States, including a June 2 screening at Naples’ Alamo Drafthouse.
Hunting giant snakes in the Florida swamp
Packed with quirky characters, Robin’s movie was shot in the Everglades during the 2023 Florida Python Challenge: A 10-day competition where hundreds of snake hunters remove as many invasive pythons as they can from seven lands managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The challenge returns this year from July 10-19.
“You’re out there hunting these huge snakes, you know,” said Robin, who now lives in Broward County. “It was scary. The few times there was a big snake, it was scary.”
You also had to be ready for anything. For example, a snake hunter suddenly leaping from the car at three in the morning, no warning, to wade into the swamp.
“And we would just continue to follow them,” Robin said. “There was no one saying, ‘Hey, by the way, I’m going to get into the water. You should bring your waders with you.’
“Sometimes we would just follow people and they’d be like, ‘Oh, I think I see something.’ And then we would have to follow them. And my pants and my socks and my shoes are all destroyed.”
We chatted with Robin last year about “The Python Hunt,” soon after its debut at South By Southwest. Here’s what else we learned from the film director.
‘The Python Hunt’ brought movie cameras to Collier County
Most of “The Python Hunt” was shot in Dade and Collier counties, Robin said. He and his three film crews based much of their production out of Everglades City.
That meant some Southwest Florida people were filmed for the movie, including some Naples residents.
Why he decided to film the Florida Python Challenge
Robin doesn’t usually make documentaries. But then a producer friend suggested he train his camera lens on the Florida Python Challenge.
“We went and explored the Python Challenge and met a bunch of people in 2022,” Robin said. “And that whole experience confirmed to me there was a movie that I really, really wanted to make.”
He especially loved that most of the hunters aren’t professionals.
“In the challenge, over 90% of the people in it are amateurs,” Robin said. “They’re not affiliated with the government at all. And they’re just figuring it out. And they’re almost, like, aspiring to be these professionals, or they’re aspiring to be Crocodile Dundee.”
Quirky Florida snake hunters shown in ‘The Python Hunt’
One of the movie’s main subjects is Toby Benoit, whom Robin describes as “a fifth-generation Florida cracker, maybe more.”
“It’s just another hunt for him,” Robin said. “He does every type of hunt: Turkey hunting, hog hunting, python hunting.”
Benoit took a group into the Florida Everglades for the 2023 Python Challenge, including an 82-year-old woman who was trying to go on her “final adventure.”
“She saw it on TV,” Robin said. “And she was like, ‘I want to do that, too. I want to save the native species.’ And she had no idea what she was signing up for.”
What it’s like hunting Burmese pythons
The hunts usually happen at night with the hunters in their cars and trucks, windows down as they scan the road and swamp.
“All the snakes are nocturnal…” Robin said. “So the easiest way to catch a snake is to go out when no one is around and just keep covering ground really slowly, waiting for one to cross a dirt road — easier to spot that way — and then just grab it by the tail or just grab the head with your hand.
“Hopefully you have a really good flashlight or a light from the truck, itself. You’re trying to get a good vantage point and you’re riding 5 miles an hour just covering ground on a dirt road, waiting to see something.”
The hunts would start at maybe 8 or 9 p.m. and run through the night, Robin said.
One trick for spotting pythons: Looking out for a snake’s “periscoping” head — sticking its head out of the water or the grass like a submarine periscope.
“The bottom of the belly of the snake is white,” Robin said. “It kind of glistens a little bit if you shine over it with a flashlight. And some people see it that way. And that’s a more challenging way to see it. Versus it just crossing the road.”
How to kill a Burmese python
Once you catch a python, there are various ways to kill the creature. Some people use a special bolt gun, Robin says. Some use a .22 rifle. But most prefer a knife and a simple stab through the head.
“(It’s) not something we like to show really (in the documentary),” Robin said. “We had to show it once. We thought it was important to have one scene where that happens.”
— To learn more about Xander Robin and “The Python Hunt,” visit xanderrobin.com.
Charles Runnells covers arts and entertainment for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 or email crunnells@usatodayco.com. Follow or message him on Facebook(@charles.runnells.7), Instagram (@crunnells1) and X (@CharlesRunnells).
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Python Challenge movie hits U.S. theaters. Expect ‘swamp monsters.’
Reporting by Charles Runnells, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
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