Venom
2.5/4
Starring: Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey, Rick Cramer, D.J. Controna, Meagan Good, Bijou Phillips, Pawel Szajda, Davetta Sherwood
Rated R for Strong Horror Violence/Gore, and Language
"Venom" is a mix of the good and the bad. There are some effectively tense scenes and the film always looks great. However, it is poorly organized and the editing is at times haphazard. I can't in good conscience give it a 3/4, but it comes pretty damn close.
Eden (Bruckner) and her friends are chilling at a drive-in when they see the local redneck tow-truck driver, Ray Sawyer (Cramer). After exchanging a few snide words behind his back, Eden gets off work and drives home. She's stopped by her ex-boyfriend Eric (Jackson), and they argue about why they split up (it's because she decided to go to Columbia University instead of LSU without telling him, although they can't decide who dumped who). Ray stops by to make sure that Eden is okay, but the mini-traffic jam causes another driver to run off the road. Ray saves the driver, a voodoo priestess named Miss Emmie (Deborah Duke), but the car falls off the bridge as he tries to retrieve her box from the backseat. This terrifies Miss Emmie's granddaughter, CeCe (Good), because it contains the souls of a number of evil men, and they've taken hold of Ray. Now, Eden and her friends have to find a way to stop Ray before they end up in mausoleums.
Let me start with what works because it will make me feel better about not giving this movie a 3/4. First, the film always looks great. Although it's not exactly scary atmosphere a la "Halloween" or "The Descent," you can really feel the heat and the humidity of the Louisiana Bayous. Cinematographer Steve Mason does a good job playing with light and shadow.
Second, director Jim Gillespie manages more than a few tense scenes. The crash scene has a fair amount of suspense and is solidly executed. We can feel Tammy's (Phillips) fear as she's running through the garage, and a death scene late in the film has a surprising amount of tension and sadness.
Now for what doesn't work. The film is unorganized and there are scenes that are obviously missing. Director Jim Gillespie, who directed "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and the mega flop "Eye See You" (it was disowned by Universal Studios and sold to DEJ Productions after filming was completed...an overreaction in my book because the movie was simply mediocre), has a good grasp on how to scare the audience, but not how to tell a story. The relationships between the characters seem to be stronger than what is shown on screen. Perhaps it's due to the bad editing, but the relationships are ill-defined. Do Eden, CeCe, Eric, Sean (Controna), Ricky (Szajda) and Rachel (Ramsey) actually know Tammy (Phillips) and Patty (Sherwood) or not? If they do, they why do they spend so much time apart? Gillespie wants it both ways, and it doesn't work because we're having to follow multiple storylines at once. I know a lot of movies do this, including slasher movies, but it plays out poorly in "Venom."
The acting is adequate for the film's purposes. Agnes Bruckner, who got raves for her performance as a troubled teen in "Blue Car," is the best of the lot, although sometimes the dialogue trips her up. Jonathan Jackson, who mainly plays romantic leads, is miscast. There are times when he's okay, but for the most part playing a sort of-jerkish hunk is out of his range. Meagan Good is rather stiff as the one who knows what's going on but can't do anything about it. Laura Ramsey is horrible as Rachel. No one else bears a mention except that Method Man has a cameo as a police officer.
"Venom" is basically your average slasher movie. It has an acceptable amount of tension, a decent amount of gore (although we are cheated from some of the kill scenes, especially the most unique one), a good sense of atmosphere, and so on. It also knows what audiences want from a movie like this: hot characters doing stupid things (in this case, very stupid), the villain who is never as dead as the heroes think he is, a reasonably high body count, and a body that suddenly goes missing. No nudity, but that hasn't been big in any movie not featuring a drug addict since the 80's. It's decent enough.
Starring: Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura Ramsey, Rick Cramer, D.J. Controna, Meagan Good, Bijou Phillips, Pawel Szajda, Davetta Sherwood
Rated R for Strong Horror Violence/Gore, and Language
"Venom" is a mix of the good and the bad. There are some effectively tense scenes and the film always looks great. However, it is poorly organized and the editing is at times haphazard. I can't in good conscience give it a 3/4, but it comes pretty damn close.
Eden (Bruckner) and her friends are chilling at a drive-in when they see the local redneck tow-truck driver, Ray Sawyer (Cramer). After exchanging a few snide words behind his back, Eden gets off work and drives home. She's stopped by her ex-boyfriend Eric (Jackson), and they argue about why they split up (it's because she decided to go to Columbia University instead of LSU without telling him, although they can't decide who dumped who). Ray stops by to make sure that Eden is okay, but the mini-traffic jam causes another driver to run off the road. Ray saves the driver, a voodoo priestess named Miss Emmie (Deborah Duke), but the car falls off the bridge as he tries to retrieve her box from the backseat. This terrifies Miss Emmie's granddaughter, CeCe (Good), because it contains the souls of a number of evil men, and they've taken hold of Ray. Now, Eden and her friends have to find a way to stop Ray before they end up in mausoleums.
Let me start with what works because it will make me feel better about not giving this movie a 3/4. First, the film always looks great. Although it's not exactly scary atmosphere a la "Halloween" or "The Descent," you can really feel the heat and the humidity of the Louisiana Bayous. Cinematographer Steve Mason does a good job playing with light and shadow.
Second, director Jim Gillespie manages more than a few tense scenes. The crash scene has a fair amount of suspense and is solidly executed. We can feel Tammy's (Phillips) fear as she's running through the garage, and a death scene late in the film has a surprising amount of tension and sadness.
Now for what doesn't work. The film is unorganized and there are scenes that are obviously missing. Director Jim Gillespie, who directed "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and the mega flop "Eye See You" (it was disowned by Universal Studios and sold to DEJ Productions after filming was completed...an overreaction in my book because the movie was simply mediocre), has a good grasp on how to scare the audience, but not how to tell a story. The relationships between the characters seem to be stronger than what is shown on screen. Perhaps it's due to the bad editing, but the relationships are ill-defined. Do Eden, CeCe, Eric, Sean (Controna), Ricky (Szajda) and Rachel (Ramsey) actually know Tammy (Phillips) and Patty (Sherwood) or not? If they do, they why do they spend so much time apart? Gillespie wants it both ways, and it doesn't work because we're having to follow multiple storylines at once. I know a lot of movies do this, including slasher movies, but it plays out poorly in "Venom."
The acting is adequate for the film's purposes. Agnes Bruckner, who got raves for her performance as a troubled teen in "Blue Car," is the best of the lot, although sometimes the dialogue trips her up. Jonathan Jackson, who mainly plays romantic leads, is miscast. There are times when he's okay, but for the most part playing a sort of-jerkish hunk is out of his range. Meagan Good is rather stiff as the one who knows what's going on but can't do anything about it. Laura Ramsey is horrible as Rachel. No one else bears a mention except that Method Man has a cameo as a police officer.
"Venom" is basically your average slasher movie. It has an acceptable amount of tension, a decent amount of gore (although we are cheated from some of the kill scenes, especially the most unique one), a good sense of atmosphere, and so on. It also knows what audiences want from a movie like this: hot characters doing stupid things (in this case, very stupid), the villain who is never as dead as the heroes think he is, a reasonably high body count, and a body that suddenly goes missing. No nudity, but that hasn't been big in any movie not featuring a drug addict since the 80's. It's decent enough.
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