'He Never Hurt A Soul Until the Day He Died'. So, goes the tagline for the 2005 film, Venom. Written by Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten and directed by Jim Gillespie (Joy Ride, I Know What You Did Last Summer), the film opened in September 2005 and it would seem it died a slow death at the box office. Perhaps the timing was bad with the setting being Louisiana and Hurricane Katrina being so fresh in the mind of the film-going public or perhaps that this film simply has the look and feel of so many films that have gone before it. The cast is made up of young actors and actresses that I really have little knowledge of, but in a film like this, you really don't need big-name stars, as most of the emphasis is on the 'scares' and 'gore'.
Miss Emmie (Deborah Duke) is a local voodoo priestess who is out on a story, rainy night in the Louisiana swamps, digging up an old suitcase and heading towards home, when her car is hit by local truck driver, Ray (Rick Cramer) and nearly shoved off a bridge. Two teens, Eden (Agnes Bruckner) and Eric (Jonathan Jackson) witness the accident and with the help of Ray, they attempt to save Miss Emmie. Ray manages to rescue Miss Emmie and she babbles on to him and the teens about the suitcase in the backseat of her car. As the teens attempt to comfort Miss Emmie, Ray heads back to the car to bring the suitcase out. Unfortunately for Ray, the car is teetering on the edge of the bridge and Ray, the car and the suitcase all tumble into the water below. When the suitcase opens, several snakes are inside and attack Ray. Ray and Miss Emmie both die and Miss Emmie's granddaughter Cece (Meagan Good) is frantic when she hears snakes were involved with Ray's death. Seems Cece is well aware of the horrors that await the teens and the story behind the snakes and that suitcase.
Venom is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen and generally looks pretty good. There are times that the lighter scenes of the film appear almost too bright, but no real complaints with the appearance of this film on disc. The disc is rather light on bonus features, just a 'Making of' documentary, Storyboard-to-Film Comparisons and Cast Auditions.
I actually didn't go into this film expecting a whole lot, so no big disappointment, here. I will admit to being pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. The films is only 85 minutes in length, quite short of a feature film, so any action a film is going to have at that short length, has to be gotten to rather quickly and this film does just that. It moves along at a pretty quick pace and because of that, you really don't get an opportunity to learn a whole lot about the characters or care for them, so the deaths in the film have little or no affect, in my opinion. None of the deaths were original, just your uncomfortable and perhaps gruesome deaths that one comes to expect in a film of this nature, but still, there was a scene or two that made an impression...for me, the scene near the end of the film in the swamp, was kind of neat, but I won't go into that, as to not spoil it for anyone wanting to check this film out. Not sure how much replay value this film may have, but it certainly isn't a bad rental and OK, I'll admit it, I didn't hate the film, so that has to count for something!
Buy the Venom on DVD at Amazon.com
