Venom (1982)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Captivating movie !

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A notoriously troubled production, firstly because of the number of volatile actors involved (especially Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed) but also because original director Tobe Hooper quit after the first week of shooting (which footage, according to replacement Haggard, was subsequently scrapped)!As I have often said, I am terrified of snakes: the last time I saw one was in my own backyard when my usually quiet but large (and much missed) dog grappled with and killed a garden reptile! Consequently, uneasy as I was about watching the film, I opted to view it on an even-smaller-than-normal-sized TV screen rather than on my choice 40" monitor! Thankfully, though the snake was certainly utilized throughout, it occupied much less screen-time than I had feared! Anyway, the film is enjoyable simply for its marvelous cast which, apart from the two legendary hellraisers already mentioned, also featured Sterling Hayden (in his last theatrical role), Nicol Williamson, Sarah Miles, Susan George and Michael Gough (whose recent passing is the reason I got to check out film now in the first place) – a heady brew, sure enough, and it was an added treat seeing them try to upstage one another and, let us not forget, the black mamba itself!The plot presents a surefire suspense scenario as the already tense situation of an asthmatic child kidnapping is exacerbated by the shooting of a policeman (which obviously brings the law upon them) and even more so when a harmless pet snake gets exchanged with a specimen of the deadliest species which naturally goes on the rampage before long! The gang comprises chauffeur Reed, maid George (who gets to parade in her underwear early on!) and her foreigner boyfriend Kinski, a wanted criminal; Hayden is the boy's elderly but larger-than-life grandfather, a former safari guide; Miles is an authority on snakes (to whom the mamba was originally destined), while Gough is the zoo handler brought in to re-capture it (though, of course, he never does and his part is, in any case, quite brief); Williamson, working around his essential immobility by overdoing his natural accent(!), is the cop negotiating with the gang – still, he sets his colleagues the task of procuring maps of the area to see from where his forces can infiltrate the building concerned.George is the snake's first victim and her convulsions are quite convincing, after which the reptile slithers away first foraging for food (the boy's other animals falling prey to it) and then moving about through the ducts in the house – in perhaps the film's biggest shock, it is found halfway inside a drinking cabinet from which the atypically distraught Reed goes to 'pick himself up'. Later on, when he takes Hayden and the boy down to the cellar, it emerges from the top of a rack just as Williamson (dressed up as a motorcycle cop to dupe the kidnappers!) breaks through the wall of an adjacent house and manages to shoot down Reed. One thing that I thought let the film down, however, was the clean nature of its progression: with this I mean that it seems the snake was on the side of the heroes, since it only turns up to menace and kill the assailants – similarly, much is made out of the necessity of applying Miles' anti-venom instantly to avert a horrible death but it is never administered (even her character's supposed mutilation at the hands of the villains is not really carried through): now if, say, the boy had been bitten...Incidentally, all three death scenes are quite outrageous: George's by way of the sheer number of bites she receives, Reed's because of where he gets his (no prize for guessing!), and Kinski's due to the melodramatic fashion in which it happens…not to mention that he takes the creature with him by shooting its head off!; the finale, then, presents a twist which has since been done to death. The film also benefits from a pretty good Michael Kamen score that is evidently superior to the pulpy material it is accompanying. I have to say, however, that the poster on the Blue Underground DVD is misleading not only because of the size of the snake but even the color is nothing like what we are dealt on-screen!The disc includes an Audio Commentary in which the director chronicles the woes that befell the project early on, how he was brought in to salvage it as best he could but also that, consequently, it proved an impersonal film for him (since he had to work with a ready-made – and, admittedly, unsubtle – script, sets, cast, and crew). He does recount a bit of trivia such as how the enmity shown by the characters of Kinski and Reed was merely an extension of the two actors' – most amusingly, their biggest brawl occurred when the Guinness family, the film's financiers (whereas the distribution company was George Harrison's Handmade Films), happened to visit the set! We are also told here that Kinski turned down RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) – ironically, another film to feature snakes prominently – in order to make this, since the paycheck accorded him was bigger!Another film I remember watching in which this type of snake had a central role was a latter-day "Euro-Cult" offering from Italy simply called MAMBA (1988) which, similarly to this one, it was let loose in an apartment where it menaced the one person inside, a girl played by Trudie Styler (Mrs. Sting). By the way, Oliver Reed would shortly after VENOM appear in another snake-related picture, the even more maligned SPASMS (1983), which I also own but have yet to check out. Finally, I should mention that I have watched (and own) another British horror film by the same title, made in 1971 and directed by Peter Sykes: concerning the arachnid brand of poison, it also emerges as the superior effort of the two (if the lesser known).

The title and tagline allude to a film about a killer snake along the same lines as Jaws; but in fact, that's not what Venom is at all. Rather, the plot revolves around a kidnapping gone wrong - the snake is just thrown in there (probably to cash in on the success of Jaws) for the sake of it and isn't really relevant to the central plot line. As you can imagine, the result is an entirely messy piece of eighties schlock, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing. The snake that the title refers to is a deadly Black Mamba, though like I say...it's not really all that important! As mentioned, the central plot focuses on a kidnapping. Some terrorists hatch a plan to kidnap a young boy - who happens to be the son of a wealthy couple. However, the plan backfires when, while attempting to make their escape, one of the men shoots a police officer on the doorstep. Now trapped in a house surrounded by police officers, the situation deteriorates further when it turns out that the harmless snake that the boy picked up from the pet shop the same morning turns out to be a Black Mamba! I didn't know anything about this film before going into it, so it came as a nice surprise when I found out that the film features performances from two cult legends - Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed! Neither man is at their best, but both give entertaining and memorable performances in their respective roles. As well as these two, we've also got performances from the likes of Sterling Hayden, Nicol Williamson and trash flick legend, Michael Gough! The way the plot flows is interesting in that it's basically your average hostage situation, with the deadly snake popping up every few minutes. The snake does get to star in most of the film's most memorable sequences, and seeing it pick off various members of the cast is entertaining. It's clear that this film wasn't meant to be taken too seriously, and it does its job in that it makes for a fun watch. It all boils down to a ridiculously over the top climax that suits the film well. It has to be said that this is rather predictable stuff and I can't see it being enjoyed by all; but Venom is decent enough for a single viewing and I just about recommend it.

Venom, is a great suspense that take's place in a luxurious townhouse in the heart of London, The film's premise is simple, a rich hotel magnate's son become's the target for a kidnap, that goes awry, Susan George,plays the maid who scheme's with her chauffeur/lover Oliver Reed, And Klaus Kinski, plays a deadly eastern European terrorist, who wants the boy in exchange for a ransom, Thing's unfortunately don't go to plan as the boy who is a reptilian nut of sort's inadvertently brings home a deadly black mamba, as there was a mix up at the pet shop,Also starring, the legendary Sterling Hayden(In his last major motion picture performance) play's the boy's big game hunting grandfather,Scottish actor Nichol Willaimson, plays the dour police officer who deals with the crisis, And Sarah Miles plays the pivotal role of a toxicologist, who is called in to deal with the task of providing the pivotal antidote,and is also held hostage when an exchange for the antidote goes wrong,In the townhouse,their are some great scare's in this flick, where you would NOT expect it them! the snake's point of view is Excellently represented by quashed anamorphic Len's's, which work really well,All in all a moderately budgeted entertaining suspense that really bite's, People who don't like snake's need not apply!

This is a stylish British-made thriller about an attempted kidnapping thwarted by a deadly snake. A young American boy, Philip Hopkins(LANCE HOLCOMB), is left in the care of his grandfather Howard Anderson(STERLING HAYDEN) at the family's London townhouse when his mother goes to Rome on business. The maid Louise(SUSAN GEORGE) and the chauffeur Dave(OLIVER REED) have conspired with one Jacques Muller aka Jacmel(KLAUS KINSKI), an international master criminal, to kidnap young Philip and hold him for ransom. The plan goes awry when Philip breaks away from Louise and hops a cab to a local pet shop to pick up the newest addition to his ever-growing menagerie- a harmless African house snake. What Philip doesn't know is that a mix-up occurred and what he's taking home with him in that wooden box is far from harmless. The London Institute of Toxicology inadvertently winds up with the house snake and Philip gets what the Institute had ordered- and it isn't pretty. It's a Black Mamba, one of the most lethal and dangerous snakes on Earth. It's the snake with the most macabre reputation on the African continent. It strikes hard and fast and carries an extremely toxic venom that can kill an adult within a few minutes. When a doctor at the Toxicology Institute(SARAH MILES) comes to realize the horrific implications of what occurred, she calls the police to try and track down the recipient of the mamba before the box is opened. Alas, it is too late. The maid opens the box, gets struck three times in rapid succession and dies a very ugly death in less than six minutes. An investigating police sergeant arrives at the townhouse and is shotgunned to death by Dave the Chauffeur, whose hair-trigger temper seems to match that of the mamba's. An armed standoff ensues, with the police surrounding the townhouse and the kidnappers(minus one) inside with their hostages. Oh,yes- the snake is now also loose and this plot element serves to ratchet up the tension and suspense considerably. A battle of wits ensues between Jacmel and the police commander in charge(NICOL WILLIAMSON) as each tries to outfox the other. In addition to a $100,000 mechanical mamba used for those scenes where the snake gets up close and personal with the cast, a real Black Mamba was also used in the filming of certain scenes for purposes of authenticity. David Ball, the reptile curator at the London Zoo, was hired by the producers for this purpose. The snake took direction very well- rearing, hissing and adopting threat postures on cue. This film is highly underrated. It has all the classic elements of a good suspense thriller along with an excellent cast of distinguished actors. The photography and editing are superb and convey a sense of claustrophobic terror. The sequence where Louise the maid gets bitten is one of the most nerve-wracking and disturbing things I've ever seen on film. In this, the producers did their homework well. This is how you die when you're bitten by a Black Mamba. Once you see it, you'll never forget it. If you want nail-biting, edge of your seat suspense, check out this minor gem. I give it a 10 out of 10. A word of caution, though- don't see it alone and don't turn out the lights and try to go to sleep afterward- at least not before checking under the bed.