put down that brandy

Review of Venom (1981) by screenqueeen: 👍 3.5/5

the thirteenth night in the lonesome hooptober day 22 film 15 cats: 0

66/100

sometimes you get a cast that is out to get each other on set and you can tell what kind of rotten attitude went on both in front of and behind the cameras. but in any fighting for the spotlight that might have happened the snake wins easily by way of purity. it even gets to fuck with both Reed and Kinski in the ways that they deserve (Reed being denied alcohol by a black mamba is wonderful).

i'm not a huge fan in how hostage/negotiation movies operate, they feel very stunted and underdeveloped. this is no different but the chaotic billing has a kind of manic energy that helps lift it from a saggy structure of storytelling and filmmaking. there's not much of Kinski nonsense that gets captured here, this is more Oliver Reed's arena but it felt to me that you could swap titles between this and David Schmoeller's CRAWLSPACE and it would still fit. in fact, it probably would have been a fun layer of unpredictability and danger if CRAWLSPACE also had a black mamba on the loose in the building. Schmoeller would also have a natural out on his briefly floated murder plot against Kinski.