Customer Reviews

Venom

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Its kind of a sad state horror films are in right now. What angers me the most about the PG-13 horror films we've been seeing recently is that they were originally supposed to be R. For instance, all of the "unrated" movies coming to DVD (see Grudge, Ring 2, Dark Water, Darkness...the list can go on and on), they were cut down from an R rating to achieve that PG-13 group. Whenever I bring this up I get yelled at (mostly by those unable to see R rated movies) because they think PG-13 horror films are the end all of horror. What they are missing is that in the past most, if not all, horror films were rated R and it just feels like a dumbing down when you can't go anywhere to find an R rated horror film but lo and behold PG-13s abound.

I apologize for the digression but it does serve a purpose for this review. The reason I give Venom a 4 star rating as opposed to the 3 or 3.5 it probably deserves is based on the timing. I saw this movie this last weekend because my friend suggested (after a horrific screening of The Exorcism of Emily Rose the weekend prior) we see something R rated.

We saw Venom and we both enjoyed it. Its a throwback to the movies we watched growing up like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. You know the movie, the unstoppable killing machine that doesn't seem too anxious in killing you and settles for simply trudging slowly toward you. Slow, but unstoppable, and always seems to show up when the protagonists least expect it. Bullets don't do anything, fire gets shrugged off and yet the killer comes onward killing everyone around the protagonist until he or she (she in this case) can't take it anymore and fights back.

In this case, the movie bases itself around the idea of this Haitian custom (don't know the veracity of this; hollywood or true?) where people will suck out the evil of murderers etc with snakes so that their soul can go into the afterlife. In this case, take one "town freak" throw in an accident and an encounter with about 6 or so of these snakes that contain these evil souls and you have the makings of the town freak becoming a murderer. Pretty standard stuff and seems almost laughable. But it is a horror film and you have to make concessions when you see one. What follows is plenty of death scenes, people getting offed in some memorable ways and some genuinely startling scenes.

Overall, Venom truly is an average horror flick. I don't want to give people the wrong impression. This isn't the best horror film I've ever seen. It probably doesn't deserve a 4, but if you can dispel your disbelief, it is pretty decent. But this one is unapologetically R rated and filled with some gore, language and scares. It comes across as feeling like I Know What You Did Last Summer mixed with stylized voodoo with the villain looking like The Swamp Thing. It does provide some nice jumps, a few scares and, if you are afraid of snakes, some neat scary snake moments. I jumped, my friend screamed and best of all? No loud and noisy pre-teens (no offense to the non-noisy pre-teens, I do make a distinction) ruining the movie. And that, in and of itself, warrants a 4 star.

This is yet another horror film that had me fooled thanks to the previews. When I saw the previews, it appeared that this was a truly disturbing film that was sure to creep you out and leave you unsettled. When I saw the film, however, it turned out to be another teen horror flick.

Granted, this movie was quite a bit more entertaining and frightening than some others I'd seen recently (Cry Wolf, Dark Water, etc.). The swamp setting did lend the movie an added sense of darkness and dread, further darkening the aura of a backwoods town in the middle of nowhere. Ray, as "Mr. Jangles", was a pretty menacing figure and the incorporation of voodoo into the story also helped to make it a bit more interesting and mysterious. So, the movie had a good setting, tone and villian - ultimately, not too bad.

I'd say it's worth a viewing.

I have no clue why this film didn't do any better than it did. It really is a very good movie and contrary to popular belief, it actually does manage to generate some supsense. I mean, true, we don't have any big-name faces in the cast, but who needs those anyway? The cast works fine, and most of them are able to act fairly decent. The only part where this movie falls short, is the last 3-4 minutes or so, when the lead female character finally kills Ray Sawyer. That whole sequence just seemed out of place. The colors were over-saturated, and it was entirely too bright in contrast with the rest of the film. Obviously, this small screw-up is not enough to make the movie bad, which is why the film deserves 5 stars and not 3. This is definitely worth a look!

How's this for no good deed going unpunished. When Ray (the purported town "freak"; a freak because, according to the cast, he has a really icky scar on his face) tries to rescue a woman whose car is rocking perilously over the side of a bridge, how was he to know that she's actually a voodoo priestess and the bag she's so adamant about is loaded with snakes carrying the sins of countless evil souls that will sink their needle-like fangs into him, injecting all that venomous evil into his veins, turning him into one pissed off tow truck driver. Thus is the storyline of Venom, a half-hearted attempt toward reviving the slasher genre and to create a new Freddy, Jason, Michael baddie. The movie is produced by Kevin Williamson and directed by Jim Gillespie. The last time they collaborated was on I Know What You Did Last Summer. Since then, it's been mostly downhill for both. What we have with Venom is a pleasing-enough slasher affair, with plenty of blood, just the right atmosphere and a good first hour to sustain its viewers attention. Beyond that first hour the movie runs out of steam and stumbles on for another twenty minutes until the requisite setup for a sequel. Don't hold your breath for that one. The movie is nicely photographed and Gillespie has an eye for style. You can almost smell the buyou's stagnant water. It's a desent slasher, and since slashers of any kind are in short supply now-a-days, it's worth a look. Oh, and kudos for that idiotic subplot indicting poor Ray as a deadbeat dad just for that ten second payoff involving a human voodoo doll. For shame.

Venom was a unique blend between The Skeleton Key, Halloween, and Jeepers Creepers. I thought it was an okay movie, but would recommend this movie for people who love the typical, teenage slasher type of movies. But for people who can't stand the sight of blood and gore, this movie is not for you.

Not a bad horror movie we have here, good young cast, awesome slasher character, intense death scenes, hmmmmmm, do I smell franchise? Probably not, this movie bombed in the theatres and that's too bad. You see, this movie takes place in the swamps of Louisana, and I guess alot of people were turned off because this came out the same time as Hurricane Katrina was rampaging through the same state. But to damn a movie because of Mother Nature doesn't seem fair, comsidering how hard it is these days to find good horror movies.

It seems Ray Jangles (Rick Cramer) helped the wrong person. He saves this old lady from falling over a bridge in her car, and when he goes back to grab her suitcase from the backseat, he and the suitcase both tumble over and drown in the river. It seems that suitcase had the souls from several bad men and they are now in Ray, who was already known as the town crazy. Some teens (who else?) try to figure out whats going on so they go visit the house of the dead old lady to talk to her grand-daughter. Voodoo plays a big part, and I liked this, it gave the movie a much darker feel.

Our teen cast is good, we have Agnes Bruckner playing Eden, the film's main character, she's not a bad little actress and might I say very, very fine. Laura Ramsey plays Rachel, her best friend, and our usual scared stiff girl, and please be sure and check out the way she dies, really, really cool!! Our male heroes consist of Jonathan Jackson as Eric and DJ Cotrana as Sean, and while I'm not familiar with either (I'm sure there on some soap opera, or maybe The OC) they do an OK job. I'm sure Mr. Jangles is not going to go down in history with the likes of Jason, Freddy, Chucky or Michael, but he sure could give them a run for there money, he is pure evil and likes his killings to be gruesome.

The death scenes are really the best part of the movie, they are all original, bloody, and quite creepy. Here is another reason I totally dug this, Method Man is in it, and he dies way early and thank god for that, he is so terrible!!! Who told this man he could act? Maybe he should quit blowing all his hard-earned (ya right) money on weed and get some acting lessons!!

So, you must be saying, geez, nothing but praise so far, why only 3 stars? Friggin' CG!!!!!! You see, Mr. Jangles has some help, and it's in the form of snakes, and oh my god is the CG on these serpents pathetic. Like when they come shooting out of his body, I swear to God I busted out laughing, my wife and I just looked at each other in complete shock. How could they sit through this after they made it and leave that in the movie, You think one of the cast or crew had to have said, "Um, Mr. Director Sir, the CG for the snakes, is just, um, REPULSIVE!!!" Take that out, and you easily have a 4 star horror movie here.

So, in all an above-average slasher film, the Voodoo and the young, strong cast give this one an edge over most. The villian is very well done and I hope maybe a sequel will come from this, if the crew can maybe realize the reason it bombed was Katrina and not the film itself. I think the scenes in the Louisana swamp only added to the creepy and dark feel of the movie, and that should be a complement, not a slap in the face.

acting......3 stars, The kids are great, Method Man is soooo bad
directing....3.5 stars, Well done, except for......
special effects....1.5 stars, I think you know what I'm gonna say
horror rating....4 stars, Suspensefull, even a little scary
quality.....3.5 stars, Little grainy, death scenes shot expertly, good audio, settings and slasher were top-notch.

Some films benefit from the fact that there are times when life imitates art (and visa versa). "Marooned" and "The China Syndrome" both benefited from what happened with Apollo 13 and Three-Mile Island, respectively (and we will not begin to discuss what happens when a movie is made of a real event that reminded everybody of a movie in the first place). But sometimes real events can hurt a movie, as when the assassination of President Kennedy became part of the reason the original version of "The Manchurian Candidate" was shelved for a couple of decades. I bring all of this up because in the wake of Hurricane Katrina a splatter flick set in the bayous of Louisiana may well be a case of bad timing. At least the television series "Invasion" got to acknowledge that it might be stepping on some toes with its hurricane references, but "Venom" just runs screaming into the face of reality.

Director Jim Gillespie ("I Know What You Did Last Summer") and producer Kevin Williamson fully intended to create a new movie serial killer in the mold of Michael, Jason and Freddie. The idea for "Mr. Jangles" came from a videogame named "Backwater" that was in development (the name has to do with collecting keys on a ring so that they, altogether now, jangle). Basically he is a tow-truck driver who is possessed by the spirits of a bunch of murderers, which explains both his reliance on a tire jack and his impulse to kill, kill, kill. Ray Sawyer (Rick Cramer), was just your average deadbeat-dad tow-truck operator, but then he ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, this gets a bit complicated because Ray gets bit by a snake, but not just any snake. This is a snake that carries the souls of 13 murderers, which happened to be in a box that happened to be in the back of car that happened to be driven by a voodoo priestess that happened to go off a bridge because Ray's tow truck was on the wrong side because the two main teenagers in the film, Eden (Agnes Bruckner) and Eric (Jonathan Jackson) were discussing their futures on the bridge.

Once voodoo enters the picture you can understand the Louisiana connection to the film. I guess we can assume, for the sake of argument or just watching the film, that "Venom" takes place before Katrina, but it is hard to ignore the irony that what the dead teenagers in this film go through is not as bad as what happened in New Orleans at the Superdome. The problem is that paying attention to the rules of voodoo that are explained in the film are not that helpful because the story abandons them to engage in standard slasher action. Being related to voodoo priestess is not as good as actually being one, but even the obvious but somewhat promising idea of a voodoo doll could be helpful under the circumstances. But the screenplay fails to take advantage of even that so that ultimate "Venom" does not have much going for it once you get past the location. A lot of contemporary horror films are flawed because the basic story elements are stupid in some significant one, but here my complaint is that this film is not as smart as it could be given the set up.

Flint Dille & John Zuur Platten (the "Constantine" video game) wrote the story and were helped on the screenplay by Brandon Boyce ("Apt Pupil," "Wicker Park"), and I have to say that one of them did come up with a scene I liked. Zombies are apparently like vampires in that there are certain things you can do to stop them from crossing your threshold. Well, Ray might be possessed, but Mr. Jangles must have picked up some of his basic tow truck driver knowledge because I like the way the killer makes the mountain come to him even if it was not enough to justify rounding up on this one. However, the only thing that separates the dead teenagers who do not get killed from the ones that do is that their names appear at the top of the credits, so there is nothing special happening on that end. When the one person who has been raised believing in voodoo is more freaked out than the ones who do not believe, that is not a good sign. Gillespie does a better job of taking advantage of the Louisiana swamp setting than the voodoo back story, but then the whole excuse for making this 2005 splatter flick is to kill people and Mr. Jangles does that even if he does not have the decided flair of his competition.

This movie I found entertaining, for its campiness. You know, Hey you, stupid teenage girl don't go into the gross dark place! and yet they still do calling out for the friend they're looking for that hasn't aswered the first twelve times you called them! Even when they see a clue that the friend has been probably hauled off their feet and left a shoe behind. Not a good sign! This actually happens quite often in these kind of horror films (Example "Wrong Turn", "Texas chainsaw Massacre", Most of the "Friday the 13th" movies")
The Gore in this film is o.k., not over the top but it makes its point. Interesting camera work used in parts of this movie was a nice surprise. The voodoo evoked Zombie posessed by evil spirits was a nice angle of the slasher killer figure. The Swamps of Louisiana provided enough creepiness to make you not want to go into the swamps....ever! There was how ever a little bit of cheese! What campy horror movie would be complete with out a help of the old vel vetta? Right! The computer genererated snakes in the film looked well obviously cgi. I can see why this film didn't spend a whole bunch of time at the box office(select theaters only in '05). Bottom Line....campy fun, get some friends and some beers and make a night out of it.

We've seen it all before, just told a different way. The presentation was acccpetable and the film falls into the league of many other teen slasher films. Though I was entertained but not captivated. So if you have nothing to do and are hungry for teen slash, this should work fine.
(Eyesofchaos dot com)

Considering its impressive horror pedigree--SCREAM's Kevin Williamson and I KNOW WHAT YOU DID..'s Jim Gillespie, my expectations were high for VENOM. Unfortunately, Williamson didn't write the script--he is a producer and the script tied director Gillespie's hands.
VENOM is a voodoo tale set in Louisiana's bayous, which does provide an eerie backdrop for some of the scenes. The voodoo element does offer some potential, but the movie becomes a HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH clone complete with a silent stalking villain who just won't die. The deaths are cleverly staged with appropriate amounts of gore but don't have a lot of impact since we don't establish much of a connection to the cliched characters.
The cast makes valiant efforts, especially Agnes Bruckner and Jonathan Jackson. The others--Rick Cramer, Laura Ramsey, Bijou Phillips and Meagan Good--are passable. No comment on Method Man as the doomed deputy.
Never felt too involved with VENOM, a cardinal sin for slasher movies. The market has become so crowded, if you don't do something significantly different, you're lost in the shuffle. MAKE ROOM FOR venom.