Venom (2005 film)

Infobox Film
name = Venom

---

image_size =
caption = Theatrical poster for "Venom"
director = Jim Gillespie
producer = Scott Faye
writer = Flint Dille,
John Zuur Platten,
Brandon Boyce
narrator =
starring = Agnes Bruckner,
Jonathan Jackson,
Laura Ramsey,
D.J. Cotrona,
Rick Cramer,
Meagan Good,
Bijou Phillips
music = John Debney,
James L. Venable
cinematography = Steve Mason
editing = Paul Martin Smith
distributor = Dimension Films, Miramax Films
released = September 16, 2005
runtime = 85 min
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross = $881,779 [ [http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=backwater.htm Venom (2005) ] ]
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website = http://www.miramax.com/venom/
amg_id = 1:326121
imdb_id = 0428251

"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. Some teenagers venture to the old woman's house, in search of help from her granddaughter, CeCe. The house is a very large and very run-down plantation home. The "zombie" follows them there, but cannot enter because it had been blessed by CeCe's grandmother. The blessing is foiled when he hooks his tow truck up to one of the house's massive support piers, causing a small section to be yanked free and go flying across the yard, breaching the perimeter which must have somehow disturbed the barrier.

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.

Cast

*"Agnes Bruckner" as Eden
*"Jonathan Jackson" as Eric
*"Laura Ramsey" as Rachel
*"DJ Cotrona" as Sean
*"Meagan Good" as CeCe
*"Rick Cramer" as Ray Sawyer
*"Bijou Phillips" as Tammy
*"Davetta Sherwood" as Patty
*"Pawel Szajda" as Ricky
*"Method Man" as Deputy Turner
*"Deborah Duke" as Miss Emmie, CeCe's Grandmother
*"James Pickens Jr" as Sheriff
*"Marcus Lyle Brown" as Terry, Morgue Worker
*"Stacey Travis" as Laura, Eden's Mother

DVD information

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

Deaths

* Ray: dies from being bitten by poisonous snakes
* Miss Emmie: dies shortly after Ray does
* Terry: killed by Undead Ray; fate never shown
* Deputy Turner: slashed in the throat, and stabbed with a crowbar
* Patty: killed off-screen, but she is seen hanging and bleeding to death
* Tammy: Face ripped off with a sandblaster
* Ricky: Maimed and amputated at the arm
* Sean: impaled with a crowbar
* CeCe: slashed at the neck
* Rachel: Impaled into a tree
* Eric: stabbed in the head by ray to save his girlfriend from ray
* Undead Ray: run over by his own truck

Reception

"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. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/venom Venom - Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes ] ] On Metacritic, the film received an average score of 25 out of 100, based on 21 reviews. [ [http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/venom Venom (2005): Reviews ] ]

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.”

Box Office Performance

"Venom" did quite poorly at the Box Office compared to other movies, taking in $881,779 in Gross Revenue. [ [http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=backwater.htm Venom (2005) ] ]

Extras Included:

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

ee also

*Zombie
*Voodoo

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0428251|title=Venom