Monsters of God @SXSW 2026

Monsters of God, directed by Eric Goode, plunges viewers into a world where fear curdles into fixation. For most people, reptiles inspire dread; for a devoted few, they ignite “the fever” — a relentless craving to possess creatures that are bigger, rarer, and more dangerous than the last. That fever, as the series reveals, has fueled a sprawling billion-dollar criminal enterprise stretching across six continents and five decades. Returning to his first love, Goode turns his camera toward the shadowy ecosystem of exotic animal smuggling, uncovering a network as cold-blooded and coiled as the species at its center.

Across the series, Monsters of God slithers between collectors who measure status in venom and scales, smugglers who navigate international black markets, and the wildlife enforcement officers determined to bring them down. With the same unfiltered access and uneasy intimacy that defined Goode’s earlier work, the show balances gonzo spectacle with sobering insight, exposing how obsession mutates into empire. What emerges is not just a portrait of the underground reptile trade, but a study of human compulsion — how the desire to own the forbidden can eclipse morality, destabilize ecosystems, and blur the line between passion and predation. FERNTV says get ready for a world that you have not seen before.