Venom (2005)

10% of critics liked it
(62 reviews)
29% of users liked it
(17,117 ratings)

A good Samaritan becomes the victim of voodoo spells in this horror story produced by Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson. 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, speeds to the scene of the… More A good Samaritan becomes the victim of voodoo spells in this horror story produced by Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson. 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, speeds to the scene of the accident to help. However, Ray doesn't know that the woman is a voodoo practitioner whose vehicle holds a case full of magic talismans. The magical spirits lead Ray to an unexpected death, and then they take over his body, turning him into a bloodthirsty monster. As the reanimated Ray makes his way into town, a group of teenagers including Eden (Agnes Bruckner) and Tammy (Bijou Phillips) 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. Venom went into release in the fall of 2005 -- only a few weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the state of Louisiana, making the film seem unfortunately topical. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 26 min.
Directed By: Jim Gillespie
Written By: Brandon Boyce, Kevin Williamson
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Horror

In Theaters: Sep 16, 2005 Wide
On DVD: Jan 17, 2006
Studio: Miramax

Critic Reviews

Christy Lemire, Associated Press
This straight-up slasher flick probably should have gone straight to video for the cheesy-looking, computer-generated snakes alone.
Scott Brown, Entertainment Weekly
A mud-simple horror trudge set in a swamp colony of Abercrombie models.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Even by the standards of the current Miramax fire sale, this misbegotten horror film deserved to go direct to video. Or cable. Or oblivion.
Justin Chang, Variety
As mindless scare machines go, Dimension Films' bayou-set slasher thriller acquits itself well enough. Gratuitously gory and derivative to the core, Venom manages to deliver some effective frights in between large swaths of voodoo gibberish.
Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
There's nothing clever about this movie. It starts too slow, plot points are abandoned and even the killings start to run together.
Anita Gates, New York Times
Venom certainly can't be called a good movie, but within the horror genre it's perfectly palatable.
, Time Out
The slasher clichés on reshuffle are old enough to predate the births of most of the flick's nubile victims-to-be, including tight-T-shirt wearer Agnes Bruckner.
Jim Lane, Sacramento News & Review
None of the actors is identified until the very end of the credits; in fact, it would have been a kindness not to name them at all, so I won't here.
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena
Gillespie consegue criar momentos eficientes de tensão a partir de um roteiro que, mesmo absurdo, sabe explorar bem as convenções do gênero. E, de brinde, o filme ainda conta com uma ótima fotografia.
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
Never strays from the mainstream slasher genre's long-decayed bylaws.
Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures
In reality, Venom is nothing more than the teenage slasher formula applied to the swamp.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...the film eventually degenerates into a conventional and hackneyed mess.
Johnny Butane, Dread Central
Don't go in with high expectations, and you might enjoy yourself!
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
I really don't know why people in horror movies don't go to horror movies more often. If they did, they'd know to stay out of Southern swamps, especially alone and at night.
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis
Venom is about as animated as Ray the zombie; they're both still up and walking, not realizing they're dead and gone.
Steve "Uncle Creepy" Barton, Dread Central
Venom is an odd film to review ... It's a throwback to the heyday of the slasher film.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Venom begins as a promising vision of small-town discontent only to succumb to the worst tendencies of the slasher teen genre.
Scott Weinberg, DVDTalk.com
Venom is too darn familiar to become anyone's dark-horse favorite, but I'd say it's worthy of a rental if you love the horror stuff.
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
... even by the logistically malleable standards of the horror genre, Venom lacks even the barest rudiments of the form ...
Michael Ferraro, Film Threat
The death scenes are so unimaginative and the gore is so minimal that you might miss it if you blink.

Read all 21 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

♥˩ƳИИ &

Cast:Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Meagan Good, Bijou Phillips, Method Man, Laura Ramsey, Pawel Szajda, James Pickens Jr., Rick Cramer, D.J. Cotrona, Stacey Travis Director:Jim Gillespie Summary: Exploring the murky swamps outside New Orleans, a group of young people… More
Cast:Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Meagan Good, Bijou Phillips, Method Man, Laura Ramsey, Pawel Szajda, James Pickens Jr., Rick Cramer, D.J. Cotrona, Stacey Travis Director:Jim Gillespie Summary: Exploring the murky swamps outside New Orleans, a group of young people (including Agnes Bruckner, Method Man, Bijou Phillips, Meagan Good and Jonathan Jackson) don't expect to have company. But they meet Mr. Jangles, a madman who's possessed by 13 unlucky souls killed by a voodoo priestess and who now spends his time hunting victims. With each new body, he adds a key to his ring of death -- and an extra jangle to his calling card. My Thoughts: "This is one of those classic low-budget scary films that delivers some jumps but no scares. The acting is as mediocre as the writing. The directing wasn't so bad. The movie really wasn't that bad either. It kept up a good pace and held my attention. It did have a creepy feel to the film which helped, and some good gore as well. I definitely jumped more then a few times. Any fan of scary flicks will appreciate the effort this film gives. Worth seeing at least once."
Dean !

Caught this on TV last night, surprised I had not heard of it. A decent little slasher film with some emerging young stars in the cast. Not very gory but feels like a good old school slasher. Produced by Kevin Williamson who had a hand in Scream and I know what you did last summer!
Todd S

How bad was Venom? It was so bad, that they couldn't even get things to jump out and scare you at the right time! It absolutely kills me! The story is fairly original with definite potential, the cast is fairly well known, and the movie was just awful! Why? Take your pick between… More
How bad was Venom? It was so bad, that they couldn't even get things to jump out and scare you at the right time! It absolutely kills me! The story is fairly original with definite potential, the cast is fairly well known, and the movie was just awful! Why? Take your pick between bad writing, cheap special effects, no character development, and a really stupid ending. I like the whole Louisiana Creole background and the mysterious voodoo religion, that no one believe in anymore, but they just didn't take it anywhere. It's 15 minutes of interesting and an hour and 15 minutes of cheesy slasher bull shit, with typical lines, no eye candy, no comedy, nothing! It was quite boring and the ending just... wow! I don't know if it was rushed or if they just didn't care, but it was so fucking stupid!! Venom could have been a lot more, but it wasn't anything worthwhile.
Barry L

Cheesy but watchable
Robert F

Usually when I rent a film from the horror section of my video store, I don't expect to be rolling on the floor in laughter when I get home and watch it. As usual, all the characters are hot teens who are incredibly stupid and annoying. For example, Tammy was so annoying, I was… More
Usually when I rent a film from the horror section of my video store, I don't expect to be rolling on the floor in laughter when I get home and watch it. As usual, all the characters are hot teens who are incredibly stupid and annoying. For example, Tammy was so annoying, I was screaming at the killer to just hurry up and kill her. The only character that showed any sort of depth was Cece, but whenever she talked about all that mubo jumbo crap you could tell she was thinking to herself, "what the hell am I doing here?" This film will do for Louisiana what Wrong Turn did for West Virginia - I'm sure the people of both places just love being portrayed in such ways. Admittedly, the second half was much better than the first, and the deaths were quite original. But unless you're looking for a good chuckle, I'd steer away from this film. By the way, if you do want to see it purely for its comedic value, watch out for the scene where they have to bring Sean back to the house. It's hysterical to watch just how much they scream while doing nothing at all as he bleeds to death.
Laurence C

If you want a scary and competent voodoo flick, just rent The Skeleton Key instead of this unimaginative slice'n'dice... How can the filmmakers keep finding new ways to impale their characters, anyway?