Review: VENOM

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

ARROW NOTE: Since VENOM didn’t open in my town (you
bastards), here’s AITH News Man Ammon with his take on the film. You got the
floor and the ceiling Ammon!

Expectations alone can alter ones view of how a film’s perceived- a lot of hype and build-up can bring a mediocre movie down, while fearing for the worse can bring a bad movie up a notch. Case in point is Jim Gillespie’s VENOM (aka BACKWATER aka THE REAPER), a late 90s style slasher flick starring a bunch of WB style stars you’ve never heard of.


I can’t really say that it was a bad movie, nor would calling it a good movie be accurate either. I went in expecting the worse, as even the film’s distributor’s weren’t behind this film, and I came out surprisingly satisfied, as VENOM gave me what I’ve been craving for when it comes to an entertaining and awesomely graphic slasher film!



I could sit here and tell you all about the plot and story… but I won’t, because really, for a movie like this, that isn’t important. All you need to know is that it’s set in Louisiana Bayou, it revolves around Voodoo, there’s a dead guy (Mr. Jangles) possessed by evil souls (courtesy of CG snakes) who bring him back as a vengeful zombie-like killing machine (think Jason Voorhees without the mask), followed by an hour of the stalking, and killing of annoying teenagers who all deserved what they got coming to them.



That’s where this movie soars over the recent onslaught of post-SCREAM slashers. Every character we meet in this flick, besides the ‘end girl’ (Agnes Bruckner), meets their doom in graphic, if not plain brutal ways. Finally, an R-rated horror film that doesn’t hold back on the gore, and gives us (the ever devote genre audience) what we’re looking for- a high body count!



I think I clocked in around 10 corpses following the wake of this movie! Some deaths were quite simple (impalings courtesy of Mr. Jangles weapon of choice- his handy crow-bar- poor Method Man…), some elaborate (sand-blasting works on more than taking paint off of cars!), and some just plain fun (a certain tug-of-war had me in stitches!).



The downside to this movie? Everything else. The acting was wretched, save for our heroine (Bruckner) who did a decent job of making us actually want to see her survive. The rest of the cast gave throw-away performances, a few over the top, a few under the mark, but all deserving their on-screen deaths by the end. All the characters were far too underdeveloped, making each of them more annoying than the last- you will root for the bad guy in this one!



And where was the T&A? Us guys get plenty of sweaty chicas in wet tank-tops, and one itsy bikini. The ladies get a couple of shirtless dudes. Where was the skin? Sure, nudity in this movie would have served the plot nothing, but then again, nothing in this movie did! Shame!



The bottom-line here folks? VENOM wasn’t a great movie, but it could’ve been a lot worse. It delivered on the gore and the body count, even if it failed at everything else. It was better than JEEPERS CREEPERS 2, HALLOWEEN: RESURRECTION and I STILL KNOW… by a long shot, but not as fun as the recent HOUSE OF WAX. If you take this flick for what it was, a mindless slasher producing lots of dead bodies, then you’ll have a blast, and it’s totally worth the ticket price (though you might have already missed your chance). If you’re looking for something more, then check it out on DVD, as it’s lack of everything else will be easier to take on the small screen.



RATING:
TWO and a Half out of FOUR stars.