VENOM. A thriller better than it might seem

If you don’t have overly high expectations, Venom works well as efficiently executed entertainment.

A cunning criminal, Müller, and his partner Louise plan to kidnap ten-year-old Philip for ransom—he’s the grandson of Howard Anderson, a wealthy owner of an international hotel chain. To carry out the plan, Louise gets a job as a housemaid at the Anderson residence and convinces the family’s chauffeur, Averconnelly, to help her and Müller abduct the boy. On the day of the operation, Philip goes to a pet store to buy a non-venomous snake but, due to a fatal mistake, ends up with a deadly black mamba. When he returns home, the kidnappers are waiting, but their plan quickly unravels: Howard unexpectedly shows up at the estate, and the snake bites Louise and escapes into the ventilation system. Louise dies, and Müller and Averconnelly take Philip and his grandfather hostage. Meanwhile, the snake mix-up is discovered—the pet store owner notifies the police, who arrive at the Anderson home.

Venom is an adaptation of Alan Scholefield’s 1977 novel. Originally, the film was directed by Tobe Hooper, known for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), but after four weeks he was fired by the producers and replaced by English director Piers Haggard, best known for the folk horror The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). The cast included Klaus Kinski (Müller), Oliver Reed (Averconnelly), Sterling Hayden (Anderson), Nicol Williamson (Bulloch), and Susan George (Louise). Kinski chose Venom over Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)—he was offered the role of Toht—solely because he was paid more, and he considered the Raiders script idiotic. On set, he constantly clashed with Reed. On one occasion, Reed rocked Kinski’s trailer, shouting, “You Nazi bastard!” It’s no surprise that Haggard—whom Kinski referred to as “a pair of long john straps”—said the nicest actor on set was the snake.

For some reason, Venom premiered first in Japan (November 1981), then in the US (January 1982) and the UK (March 1982). It was a box office failure: with a budget of seven and a half million pounds, it grossed just over five million dollars worldwide. The reviews weren’t great either. Roger Ebert wrote, “The plot is ridiculous, but then again, that’s obvious. We don’t necessarily want to believe thrillers—we just want to be engaged and scared. Venom doesn’t do that.” Vincent Canby asserted that “if Venom doesn’t end up being the stupidest movie of 1982, you can bet it’ll be close.” Haggard later defended himself, saying he took over from Hooper after only ten days of preparation and couldn’t make changes to the script that he believed would have improved the film: “And you can tell. It’s not my film—it’s something in-between. […] It wasn’t a happy time.”

Both critics and Haggard himself were probably a bit too harsh on Venom, as it’s not as bad a film as it might seem. While the plot is admittedly nonsensical, the execution is very competent. In fact, the craftsmanship is solid: cinematography was handled by Gilbert Taylor, the brilliant British cinematographer known for films like Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964), Repulsion (1965), Cul-de-Sac (1966), Roman Polanski’s Macbeth (1971), and Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). Equally impressive is Michael Kamen’s subtle score. What lifts Venom far above typical B-movie fare is the stellar cast—especially Kinski, Reed, and Hayden—and Haggard was skilled enough as a director to steer the absurd plot with a steady hand. The film even brings to mind Mikhail Bulgakov’s brilliant novella The Fatal Eggs, though I doubt that was an intentional influence. All in all—it’s worth a watch.