VENOM (2005)

Movie studios are constantly on the hunt for a new slasher movie villain that they can turn into their next big money spinning horror franchise. They continue to rape the best of the bunch with one awful sequel after another. Michael Myers has been reduced to a wimpy joke with unending bad sequels. Jason Voorhees is basically just a big, blundering retard that kills off bad actors in beyond awful movies. Freddy and Chucky were only frightening in their first few movies and have ever since been reduced to caricatures of their previous selves. No matter how awful the sequels are for these franchise slasher villains, the fans continue to pay to see them, including myself. We know these movies are going to suck, yet we go anyway hoping for a couple of stupid laughs and a few decent kill scenes. And even with those low expectations, we're still usually disappointed. Most of the attempts to create the next big franchise villain are miserable failures but Venom isn't one of these looser's, and actually has some decent moments amongst the cliches.
The villain in Venom is Mr. Jangles. That's right, Mr. Jangles. He's very good friends with Dr.Giggles (but is no relation to Mr Jingles). Jangles is a man possessed by 13 evil souls who were held at bay by a voodoo priestess till an accident occurred that set them loose in the swamps of Louisiana. The dialogue and plot are fairly week and there's nothing really new to be seen here. Once again the cast is young kids who are decent actors, but script wise have nothing to work with. It's the same shit over and over in these slasher films. There's the tough idiot loner type who won't listen to reason. Then there is his level headed best friend. Then there's the girl who is having relationship troubles. Method Man provides comic relief by basically playing himself in the form of a cop. Bijou Phillips, who should be getting better parts than this, plays a bitchie slut. And we all know what happens to bitchie sluts in slasher films. Bijou does make the scenes with her character entertaining though and it would have been a wise move to utilize her more in the film.

What Venom does do right is keep things moving at a brisk pace by staging some pretty decent kill scenes. Most of the murders look good with some cool blood and gore effects. A couple are fairly gruesome and go beyond what you would usually see in your standard teenage slasher pic. The makeup for Mr. Jangles is solid and works well within the misty, dark atmosphere of the swamps. Jangles may have an idiotic name, but he does come off pretty creepy in some of the scene's where's he's hunting down some soon-to-be victims.
Jim Gillespie's direction is solid for the most part. There is only one scene that felt poorly conceived and executed from a directorial standpoint. He's not too flashy and he seems to still have the same style intact that he used for I Know What You Did Last Summer, which is not a classic by any means, but is definitely a cut above most of the new slasher pics of the last few years or so, including sadly, this one.

Venom is handicapped by stupid writing and bad cliches that have been used to death. Despite that, it does have good moments and it never really bores. It's dumb bloody fun that can be enjoyed in a dark room, late at night with a big bowl of popcorn (with extra butter). It's nothing memorable though and it's definitely not the next new big slasher franchise that it's creators no doubt longed it to be.