Hotel magnate/former big game hunter Howard Anderson (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb) has a problem with his house staff; namely his maid Louise (Susan George, Enter the Ninja) has hatched a plan along with her criminal boyfriend (currently using the alias) Jacmel (the force of nature that was Klaus Kinski, 1979’s Nosferatu the Vampyre) to kidnap Anderson’s grandson, Philip (Lance Holcomb)… and she’s seduced the lad’s mother’s brutish chauffeur Dave (Oliver Reed, The Curse of the Werewolf, The Brood) to aide them in their machinations.
Get this, Philip has a fascination with wildlife… and as is always the way, he ends up accidentally acquiring a deadly black mamba snake via a pet shop oopsie… and it’s not entirely a shitty turn of luck for ol’ P-Man, as the snake bites Louise within a P.H. of a hot second of being freed from it’s wooden crate.
Now, the snake goes AWOL… and since they fucked-up the kidnapping (due in no small part to Dave… fuckin’ Dave… blasting a policeman, point blank, with a shotgun) our criminal friends are now trapped inside Anderson’s abode with the police surrounding them and that slitherin’ serpent cruising through the walls just looking for someone else to sink it’s fangs into, hostage situation be damned!
The main strength of Venom is it’s absolutely outrageous premise… or it’s eclectic cast… hell, there’s a lot here to love if yours cruelly is to be honest…
Starting with that premise… there’s nothing quite like this film’s standard hostage thriller, mixed with nature run amok, with a dash of “old dark house” trappings narrative… and it’s that bold mix of disparate elements that keep this one so damn fun to watch… well, that and that cast…
As mentioned, this one features a murderer’s row of incredibly interesting, yet incredibly off-kilter thespians with Reed displaying nothing but menace… menace punctuated by periods of completely losing his shit, and Klaus is mesmerizing as always with his intensity and insanity coming on full force… and all of that is balanced by some solid supporting performances too with Excalibur‘s Nicol Williamson giving a spirited turn as Commander William Bulloch; the leader of the police force attempting to quell that hostage situation and Sarah Miles provides a grounded, human element as Dr. Marion Stowe, the toxicologist attempting to retrieve the marauding mamba. Also kudos must be given to George who’s performance goes from falsely demure to violently physical once she gets that vicious venom in her veins!
The film also boasts a suspenseful, fast-moving pace due in part to the snappy screenplay from Robert Carrington (working from a novel by Alan Scholefield), and that is also aided and abetted by a rousing score from composer Michael Kamen (Event Horizon).
All of the above looks and sounds fang-tastic thanks to the new transfer utilized by Blue Underground for this 4K release which boasts crisp visuals, vivid color, and rich blacks… as well as a new Dolby Atmos audio mix.
Special features on this Disc (we’ll get to that) include a duo of audio commentaries; one from the film’s director, The Blood on Satan’s Claw‘s Piers Haggard (in which he delivers first-hand details and anecdotes about the production including dealing with that positively batshit line-up of talent he had to work with, and the difficulties in inheriting the film from original director Tobe Hooper (Lifeforce… bet you thought I was going to say The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, didn’t ya?) after a suspected nervous breakdown (which no one will be surprised to learn is at least in part due to Kinski)… and the other from Film Historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson, and Eugenio Ercolani that covers Venom from the scholarly (and fan’s!) perspective in an enjoyable listen filled with a ton of info (especially on the cast) and trivia, as well as Venom‘s theatrical and teaser trailers.
Moving on to Disc Two, we have a Blu-ray presentation of Venom, along with the aforementioned commentary tracks and trailers, which are joined by interviews with editor/second unit director Michael Bradsell and make-up artist Nick Dudman, a retrospective of the film provided by author/critic Kim Newman, and an examination of Venom‘s place in British horror cinema as well as details of it’s production courtesy of author/critic Allan Bryce.
Also included are a collection of TV spots and an image gallery.
Additionally this package includes a booklet with an essay from Fangoria and Rue Morgue‘s Michael Gingold covering the history of the film.
Comprised of one hell of a cast and a solid (and delightfully ridiculous) nature run amok-adjacent mystery, Venom is a wicked winner that’ll really put the bite on you!
