 |
| Where Was Beware Boiúna Filmed? All Filming Locations of the 2026 Movie. |
Beware Boiúna was filmed entirely on location in Colombia, with the production using real jungle and river environments around Leticia in the Colombian Amazon and additional terrain around Girardot, Cundinamarca. Principal photography ran from October 7 to December 6, 2024, with the filmmakers avoiding studio soundstages altogether. Although the story is set around the fictional Curuca River in the Amazon, the production travelled to some seriously remote corners of Colombia to create its version of the rainforest — meaning the cast and crew got considerably more jungle than a convenient green-screen backdrop.
The 2026 action horror thriller, directed by Mike P. Nelson and written by Alan B. McElroy, draws heavily on Brazilian folklore and the legend of the Boiúna, a gigantic mythical serpent. The locations therefore had to do more than simply look tropical. The filmmakers wanted dense vegetation, enormous trees, waterways and difficult terrain capable of making the characters feel genuinely isolated.
In total, the production used four distinct location areas based on the filming information available: the Amazon River around Leticia, the deep jungle surrounding Leticia, restricted Indigenous and sacred jungle areas, and jungle and river terrain around Girardot. These were used for different parts of the film rather than treating the entire production as one generic rainforest.
The Amazon River around Leticia, Colombia, provided one of the film's most important physical settings. Leticia sits at Colombia's southernmost point, close to the borders with Brazil and Peru, making it an obvious production base for a story that plunges characters deep into the Amazon. The river itself supplied the kind of vast, unpredictable environment required for a creature feature centred on a serpent that can move through both water and land. Rather than recreating that atmosphere on a soundstage, the production worked directly on the actual river.
The river also became part of the crew's daily routine. Remote jungle areas could not simply be reached by driving a production van down a convenient road, because the rainforest had other ideas. Cast and crew travelled by boat to reach isolated sections of the filming area. That practical approach helped give the movie its sense of separation from civilisation, particularly during sequences involving the medical team's journey and encounters with the people already operating in the jungle.
The deep Amazon jungle around Leticia was the production's main natural environment and arguably the location most closely associated with the film's visual identity. Dense vegetation, towering trees and tangled sections of forest created the enclosed atmosphere needed for a story in which the characters are never quite sure what is watching them. The jungle was effectively another character in the film, except this one had considerably more foliage and absolutely no interest in helping the protagonists.
Several sequences required the actors to work directly in the natural conditions rather than performing against controlled studio environments. Mud, standing water, heat and darkness became part of the filmmaking process. Night sequences were particularly demanding because the dense canopy could block out much of the available light, allowing the production to create a genuinely dark environment for scenes in which the characters are being hunted.
Restricted Indigenous and sacred jungle areas around the Amazon region were also used during production after access was secured through local community elders. These areas offered sections of older, relatively untouched forest with limited visibility, making them useful for scenes where the filmmakers wanted to keep the Boiúna hidden from view.
That choice is particularly important for a monster film. Showing a giant creature every five minutes tends to remove some of the mystery rather quickly, so the production used the thick vegetation and restricted sightlines to conceal the serpent during key moments. The surrounding forest could therefore become part of the suspense without requiring the creature to dominate every frame.
Girardot in Cundinamarca provided another significant filming environment. The area offered jungle terrain and river corridors while giving the production access to infrastructure that was more practical for complicated sequences requiring heavier equipment and controlled setups. Some of the film's rougher action material, including the construction-site and muddy-pit sequences, was staged in this part of Colombia.
The contrast between Girardot and the remote Amazon locations gave the production some useful flexibility. Filming everything in the deepest rainforest would have created obvious logistical headaches, particularly for scenes requiring substantial equipment or carefully controlled action. Girardot allowed the filmmakers to retain the rugged visual language of the story while making some of those sequences more manageable.
The jungle and river corridors around Girardot also helped expand the movie's physical world without making every scene look identical. The production could move between different types of vegetation, waterways and rough terrain while maintaining the impression that the characters were trapped within one enormous wilderness. For viewers, the distinction may not always be obvious on screen — which is rather the point when a film is trying to make one country stand in for a much larger fictional rainforest.
Another location associated with the wider production landscape is the Leticia-side Amazon border region, where Colombia, Brazil and Peru meet. This area gives the film's setting some geographical context even though the fictional story is specifically positioned around the Curuca River. It also explains why the production was able to create such an expansive Amazonian environment while remaining on the Colombian side of the region.
The decision to film in real jungle conditions also came with some obvious complications. The cast had to contend with genuine heat, mud and standing water, while the production brought in local animal wranglers because the surrounding ecosystem was home to real wildlife. In other words, the biggest creature-related problem on set was not necessarily the enormous mythical serpent waiting for its close-up.
The locations also fit the story's central conflict unusually well. Beware Boiúna follows a medical team entering an isolated Amazon environment, where a confrontation with local foresters spirals into a much larger struggle after their actions disturb the territory of the Boiúna. The physical isolation of the Colombian jungle reinforces that story without needing much explanation. There are no convenient city streets to escape through and very few places where anyone can simply call for help and wait beside a nice little café.
There is also a practical reason why viewers should not expect every individual spot used during filming to have been publicly identified at the time. Productions working in remote environments often need to protect their schedules and access arrangements, particularly when filming involves difficult-to-reach areas. Revealing precise filming points while cameras are still rolling can attract unwanted visitors and interfere with the work. So while the principal areas used for Beware Boiúna are known, individual jungle clearings, river sections and temporary production setups may not have been publicly named.
For anyone thinking about turning the film into a travel itinerary, Leticia and its surrounding Amazon environment are the obvious starting point. The area offers access to the rainforest and river landscapes that shaped the film's visual world, although visiting the real Amazon is rather different from watching actors run through it while a giant CGI serpent gives chase. The environment is spectacular, but it is still a real ecosystem rather than a movie set designed for tourists.
Girardot offers a very different travel experience, with a more accessible setting and a landscape that contrasts with the remote Amazon locations. Its inclusion in the production demonstrates how filmmakers can combine different Colombian environments to create one continuous fictional wilderness. On screen, the locations blend together; in real life, they provide two distinctly different ways of experiencing the country's landscapes.
The locations give Beware Boiúna much of its atmosphere before the monster even appears. The Amazon River supplies scale, the dense forest creates confinement, the restricted jungle areas provide natural darkness and concealment, while Girardot gives the production room to stage its more demanding action sequences. It is a smart example of how physical locations can do some of the storytelling work themselves instead of relying entirely on effects.
My take? The most interesting thing about the filming locations is that the movie did not need to pretend the Amazon was dangerous. It simply put its cast in the actual environment and let the heat, mud, water, darkness and isolation do some of the heavy lifting.
That gives Beware Boiúna a more grounded feel than a creature film built entirely around studio sets. The idea of visiting these places sounds exciting, too, although perhaps leave the medical mission, angry foresters and enormous snake out of the holiday package. A boat trip through the Amazon sounds considerably more relaxing when nobody is being chased.
So, based on the production details available, Beware Boiúna used four main individual location areas across Colombia: the Amazon River around Leticia, the deep jungle around Leticia, restricted Indigenous and sacred jungle areas, and the jungle and river corridors around Girardot. The wider Leticia border region also provides important geographical context for understanding how the film created its fictional Amazon setting. If you have watched the movie and recognised another landscape that you think belongs on this list, which Beware Boiúna filming location caught your eye? Share your thoughts and compare your favourite scene with the real Colombian landscapes behind it.