VENOM (1982)
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 92 Minutes 28 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Atmos; DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround; DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision (HDR10) 2160 Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Piers Haggard
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Klaus Kinski, Sarah Miles, Nicol Williamson, Susan George, and Oliver Reed
Synopsis: It was supposed to be the perfect crime: the sexy maid (Susan George of STRAW DOGS), a psychotic chauffeur (Oliver Reed of THE BROOD) and an international terrorist (Klaus Kinski of NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE) kidnap a wealthy ten-year-old boy from his elegant London townhouse. But they didn’t count on a murdered cop, a desperate hostage siege, and one very unexpected houseguest: a furious Black Mamba, the most lethal and aggressive snake known to nature. It can attack from ten feet away. Its bite brings excruciating death. And it is on the loose. Now, terror knows no antidote… and the ultimate in slithering mayhem is VENOM.
Serpentine kidnap-thriller Venom (1982) is directed by Piers Haggard (The Blood On Satan's Claw) and is based on Alan Scholefield's novel of the same name, and stars two of cinema's most notorious madmen, Klaus Kinski (Crawlspace) and Oliver Reed (Paranoiac). In this Brit animal-attack/kidnap thriller an asthmatic 10-year boy named Phillip (Lance Holcomb, Christmas Evil) is left alone for the weekend with his grandfather by his overly protective mother Ruth (Cornelia Sharpe, The Reincarnation of Peter Proud) at their posh London townhouse. It seems Ruth is off to Rome to join her husband who is away there on a work assignment. She leaves Phillip with her father Howard (Sterling Hayden, Dr. Strangelove) who seems to have been some sort of African big game hunter back in his prime. Ruth has some reservations about leaving her son alone with her elderly dad, but she is somewhat comforted by the fact that she has the chauffeur Dave (Oliver Reed, Burnt Offerings) and a nanny named Louise (Susan George, Crazy Mary Dirty Larry) to help keep the boy safe while she is away.
What she does not know is that Louise and Dave are not good people, in fact they have partnered with an international criminal named Jacmel (Klaus Kinski, Aguirre the Wrath of God) to kidnap her son and hold him ransom. However, before the trio can enact their kidnap plan the boy's grandfather throws a wrench into the works by allowing young Philip to take a taxi by himself to a pet shop to purchase a snake ...only the inept shop keeper send Philip away with, not a harmless grass snake, but the deadliest snake on the damned planet, a venomous black mamba!
The kid arrives back at the home with his deadly new pet safely locked away in a wooden box, and runs off to his bedroom t play with it, but not before an unhinged encounter where Reed's character who confronts the boy on a staircase and repeatedly calls him a "cheeky bastard". A short time later Jacmel arrives at the flat and just when the kidnap plan is about to get underway Louise is viciously bitten in the face by the snake. Unfortunately his means that Susan George is down for the count and out of the picture at this point which was awful for me, just a few moments earlier she was stripping off her maid outfit... damn, we were so close!
Anyway, with Susan George's Louise writhing in pain and dying a slow, suffocating death the kidnap plot is revealed to grandpa Howard, who is now held against his will at gunpoint along with his grandson. Right then a copper comes knocking at the front door, unbeknownst to the kidnappers, he is there only to make an inquiry about the unfortunate mix-up at the pet shop, but before he can even explain why he is there the panicked and trigger happy Dave blasts the cop right off the front door step with a shotgun to the chest, which incites a near instant stand-off with the authorities. Now the kidnappers and victims are trapped in the house with a deadly black mamba on the loose, while the coppers surround the townhouse, forcing Jacmel to come up with a new plan of the fly.
This one is has a pretty great set-up, a seemingly simple kidnapping gone wrong scenario that turns into a tense police standoff flick with a killer venomous snake on the loose. The flick also has a fairly distinguished cast, and while Susan George is gone a bit too soon for my tastes, but she turns is a fine performance. Not surprisingly, Reed and Kinski terrific, both bursting at the seems with tension, probably because they actually hated each other. The always watchable Sterling Hayden turns in a wily performance as the aging white hunter trying to protect his grandson. Young Lance Holcomb manages to not be too annoying for a kid actor, but doesn't get a lot to do, his character is waylaid after suffering from an asthma attack.
When I hear Venom brought up in cinema conversation it sort of has a reputation as having not enough siege nor enough snake in it, and I agree with the latter of the considerations, there is definitely not enough of the black mamba in the movie for my tastes, though there's plenty of siege, maybe too much, feeling like a police procedural more than and horror flick. The lack of snake is sort of made-up for by having a lot of snake POV shots though, so you feel it's presence, as it slithers it's way through the ventilation system There is plenty of siege elements though, and to that end we have Commander William Bulloch (Nicol Williamson, Excalibur) heading the police action against the kidnappers. He comes across as a smart and shrewd lawman during is negotiations with Kinski but somehow allows the kidnappers to snatch away a lady snake expert (Sarah Miles, Blow-Up) who arrives on scene to consult about the deadly black mamba. She becomes a bargaining chip for the kidnappers who threaten to cut off her fingers if their ransom demands of money and a car are not met.
The flick moves along at a brisk pace, along the way the script seems to jettison a fair amount of logic to maintain that pace, but it was not anything I couldn't forgive. For myself the thrill of this one is the great set-up, the suspenseful tension, and the terrific cast - let's be clear, any film starring Kalus Kinksi, and Oliver Reed together is gonna be a banger, how cold it not be? The lone drawback for me would be the need for more snake onscreen, it is glimpsed only fleetingly, which works for some movies but not this one, especially when the few scenes we do get are so effective - that snake was scary and a few of the scenes made my skin crawl, while others made me laugh, such as the venomous serpent crawling up Reed's pant leg to bite the brute right on the schlong! When it comes to snake-attack flicks Venom is pretty top-tier for me, and if you get a kick out of this one, I also highly recommend another Oliver Reed starring entry in the sub-genre, Spasms (1983).
Audio/Video: Venom (1981) arrives on 4K UHD from Blue Underground framed in the original 1.85:1 widescreen aspect ratio with a brand-new restoration, scanned in 4K 16-bit from its 35mm IN, with Dolby Vision HDR. The source looks terrific, grain is nicely resolved, the 4K resolution offering pleasing texture and detail in the close-ups, and improved depth and clarity. The Dolby Vision HDR10 color-grade gives primaries a nice blush, but the most noticeable benefit is the improved black levels and contrast, which are noticeably more dialed in than the Blu-ray counterpart,
Audio choices are plentiful with choice of English Dolby Atmos (TrueHD 7.1) with Optional English SDH subtitles. The audio is clean and free of hiss, except for that of the deadly black mamba... drum roll please! The Michael Kamen (The Dead Zone) score, sound effects and dialogue are nicely balanced and come through clean and with a sense of urgency.
When Blue Underground released this on Blu-ray back in 2016 it was pretty slim on extras, but this new 2-disc UHD/BD remedies that with both new and archival bonus junk! Things kick-off with an archival Audio Commentary with Director Piers Haggard moderated by Jonathan Sothcott, offering some solid insight about the making of this troubled movie production, with Haggard commenting on taking over the movie after the original director Tobe Hooper was fired, following what has often been reported to be a nervous breakdown on set. He also speaks volumes about the tumultuous on-set chemistry between stars Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed who apparently loathed each other from day one, with Reed taunting Kinski by calling him a "Nazi bastard" while for his part Kinski threatening to kill Reed. In a lot of ways the making of anecdotes are more interesting the movie to a degree. Other archival extras include a pair of Trailers and three TV spots for the movie.
When Blue Underground released this on Blu-ray back in 2016 it was pretty slim on extras, but this new 2-disc UHD/BD remedies that with both new and archival bonus junk! Things kick-off with an archival Audio Commentary with Director Piers Haggard moderated by Jonathan Sothcott, offering some solid insight about the making of this troubled movie production, with Haggard commenting on taking over the movie after the original director Tobe Hooper was fired, following what has often been reported to be a nervous breakdown on set. He also speaks volumes about the tumultuous on-set chemistry between stars Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed who apparently loathed each other from day one, with Reed taunting Kinski by calling him a "Nazi bastard" while for his part Kinski threatening to kill Reed. In a lot of ways the making of anecdotes are more interesting the movie to a degree. Other archival extras include a pair of Trailers and three TV spots for the movie.
New extras start off with exclusive to this edition include a brand new Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolan; it;s a terrific commentary team-up. I;d previously heard Howarth speak about the film on MrParkas Weekly Podcast a few years back, and it's great to hear his updated views on the film here with Ercolani.
New interviews start off with the 26-min Fangs For The Memories – Interview with Editor/Second Unit Director Michael Bradsell, he discusses how he ended up on the film, how production with original director Tobe Hooper was snot going well, the production was not making their shot schedule, mostly due to issues with stars Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed, and how Hooper ended up being fired after two weeks, with director Peirs Haggard taking his place. Haggard scrapped all of Hooper's footage, doing re-shoots, changing Kinski's character and bit, creating a 2nd unit to shoot additional scenes to keep things on schedule, and of course stories about Kinski and Reed's storied behavior.
In the 21-min A Slithery Story – Interview with Makeup Artist Nick Dudman gets into his start in the business working on Star Wars and Superman II, then working with Basil Newall on Venom. He talks about the production shutting down a week into it, with Haggard taking over for Hooper. The atmosphere on set, saying that Reed was at times quite lovely, but a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde personality. Kinski was a force of nature who loved winding you up. Describing him and Reed as chalk and cheese, and how the pair would bring the production to a standstill. There are also fun anecdotes about Reed disappearing off set, and his after hours drinking at pubs. He describes Haggard as a 'weaver of calm'. Susan George was lovely, as was Sara Miles, but noting the latter was eccentric and her dog was incontinent on set. He says that the whole experience was a baptism of fire, and that having a real black mamba on set seems unnecessary and seemed to be done for publicity, and that crew was petrified of the snakes. he also gets into how the snakes were kept, how they were wrangled by handlers, the security measures, their incredible speed and curiosity, and his thoughts on the finished film.
In the 24-min Mamba Memories – Interview with Author & Critic Kim Newman the always entertaining Newman, who in a rare move is not on his quilt covered couch, talks about the book source, the spate of killer snakes films at the time, elements of the screenplay that slightly improved on the book; as well as Hooper's involvement, getting quite a bit into the director's early filmography, and how Kinski and Reed probably put him off the film, as well as looking at Haggard's spotty career, noting the highs and lows,
The last of the new interview is the 15-min Pick Your Poison – Interview with The Dark Side’s Allan Bryce. He talks about how the state of Brit horror films at the time was not great, his assessment of Haggard, whom he says seemed more comfortable working on TV, Hooper's involvement and stating that Kinski had it out for Hooper, the notoriously fickle star boasting about getting Hooper canned. He also talks about an earlier version of the film with Sean Connery cast in it back in '77 that never came to be, and of course some wild drinking stories about Reed,
The 2-disc UHD/BD arrives in a black dual-hubbed keepcase with a Reversible Sleeve of Artwork, plus an Embossed Slipcover with unique artwork. Inside there's a 20-Page Collectible Booklet with essay by Michael Gingold, which is pretty much the same booklet that accompanied the 2016 Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a few minor differences, like a different cover image, and a 2-page image of Susan George has been moved so that it's now the booklet's centerfold.
Special Features:
Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- Audio Commentary #1 with Director Piers Haggard
- NEW! Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani
- Trailers
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- Audio Commentary #1 with Director Piers Haggard
- NEW! Audio Commentary #2 with Film Historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani
- NEW! Fangs For The Memories – Interview with Editor/Second Unit Director Michael Bradsell (26:12)
- NEW! A Slithery Story – Interview with Makeup Artist Nick Dudman (21:00)
- NEW! Mamba Memories – Interview with Author & Critic Kim Newman (23:29)
- Theatrical Trailer (1:25)
- Teaser Trailer (0:31)
- 3 TV Spots (1:41)
- NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery (128 Images)
- 20-Page Collectible Booklet with essay by Michael Gingold (Forst Pressing Only)
- Embossed Slipcover (First Pressing Only)
Venom (1982) is a terrifically suspenseful snake-attack flick with palpable on-set acidity and friction between stars Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed that bleeds right through the TV screen. Blue Underground not surprisingly do wonderful work bringing the film to 4K Ultra with not only a significantly upgraded Dolby Vision/Atmos A/V presentation, but over three hours of new extras that dig deep into the movie's troubled production.
Screenshots from the Blue Underground 2025 Blu-ray:
Extras:
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