Venom

Venom
Theatrical poster for Venom
Directed by	Jim Gillespie
Produced by	Scott Faye
Written by	Flint Dille, John Zuur Platten, Brandon Boyce
Starring	Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey, D.J. Cotrona, Rick Cramer, Meagan Good, Bijou Phillips
Music by	John Debney, James L. Venable
Cinematography	Steve Mason
Editing by	Paul Martin Smith
Distributed by	Dimension Films, Miramax Films
Release date(s)	September 16, 2005
Running time	85 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Gross revenue	$881,779[1]

Venom is a 2005 voodoo horror film/horror-of-demonic starring Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey, Meagan Good, DJ Cotrona, and Method Man. The movie marks the re-teaming of Kevin Williamson, creator of Scream, and director Jim Gillespie from I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Venom follows the story of several teenagers lost in the bayous of Louisiana trying to escape a mysterious evil.

Plot

When an aged Creole woman is caught in a car wreck in a remote section of Louisiana, Ray (Rick Cramer), the owner of a nearby filling station, is at the scene of the accident to help. However, Ray doesn't know that the woman is a voodoo practitioner and that her vehicle holds a case full of magic talismans in the form of poisonous snakes (hence the title). The magical spirits lead Ray to an unexpected death, and then they take over his body, turning him into a bloodthirsty zombie-like monster. As the reanimated Ray makes his way into town, a group of teenagers led by Eden (Agnes Bruckner) find themselves running for their lives from the supernatural creature, while Deputy Turner (Method Man) looks for a way to keep the strange menace under control. One by one the teenagers are killed, the most inventive death at the hands of a sandblaster in a parking garage. The rest of the teens must find a way to kill the creature before it kills them.

Cast

• Agnes Bruckner as Eden Sinclair
• Jonathan Jackson as Eric
• Laura Ramsey as Rachel
• Bijou Phillips as Tammy
• DJ Cotrona as Sean
• Meagan Good as CeCe
• Rick Cramer as Ray Sawyer
• Davetta Sherwood as Patty
• Pawel Szajda as Ricky
• Method Man as Deputy Turner
• Stacey Travis as Laura, Eden's Mother

Reception

Venom went into release in the fall of 2005, only a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated much Southeast Louisiana, making the film seem unfortunately topical. However, the scenery was much more typical of the Acadiana region.

Venom opened on September 16, 2005 to a majority of negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, 8% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 60 reviews.^[2] On Metacritic, the film received an average score of 25 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.^[3]

Kyle Smith from the New York Post wrote, “Even the undemanding high schoolers the film is aimed at will experience déjà voodoo, as Venom recites the A through Z of horror clichés. All hopes for suspense and plot twists are snuffed out about as quickly as the film’s black characters.”

Many critics found Venom to be a stereotypical teen slasher movie. Spence D. from IGN Movies called it a “Cookie cutter horror straight from the Swamps of Louisiana.” Peter Hartlaub from the San Francisco Chronicle said this about Venom, “There’s nothing clever about this movie. It starts too slow, plot points are abandoned and even the killings start to run together.”

Venom did quite poorly at the box office compared to other movies, taking in $881,779 in gross revenue.^[1]

DVD information

Venom was released on January 17, 2006 on Region 1 DVD in USA. It was released a few months later in UK.

Extras Included

• "Voodoo Nightmare": The Making of Venom
• Storyboard-To-Film Comparison
• Cast Auditions
• Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
• Spanish subtitles

References

External links

• Official website
• Venom at Allmovie
• Venom at the Internet Movie Database