Venom

Dir. Piers Haggard 92 Minutes

UK

1981

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, Nicol Williamson, Sarah Miles, Sterling Hayden, Susan George, Cornelia Sharp, Michael Gough

***/***** Venom has the feel of a complete compilation of individual film ideas thrown together to see what works, and surprisingly a nice amount of it does. The narrative starts amidst a crime: three terrorists (Klaus Kinski, Susan George, Oliver Reed) kidnap the child of a wealthy couple and keep him in a London home with his grandfather (Sterling Hayden). Things go wrong when they are accidentally (!) sent a package containing a deadly Black Mamba snake who quickly escapes and disappears into the apartment. As police catch wind of the hostage situation and surround the apartment, the people within find themselves in a fight for survival as the snake stalks its prey. The film has a highly entertaining blend of modes with just enough reputable faces in the mix to keep the performances interesting, and its almost admirable how committed the screenplay is to these various subplots when at its heart the escape of the deadly snake would probably be just enough to draw attention (and, interestingly, the introduction of the Black Mamba is probably the most shoehorned in of these elements, as if executives had this kidnapping script and found that it was just missing. . .  something). Venom rarely goes beyond surface level entertaining, but is such a wild amalgamation that it is almost a miracle that some of it works at all.  October 19th, 2019