Venom * (1981, Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, Nicol Williamson, Sarah Miles, Sterling Hayden, Susan George) – Classic Movie Review 8846

Snakes alive! Director Piers Haggard’s 1981 film Venom features half a dozen screen legends (Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, Nicol Williamson, Sarah Miles, Sterling Hayden, Susan George) stranded in a silly horror thriller movie without any bite.

Venom is a poisonous, nasty suspense thriller in which German psycho baddie Jacmel (Kinski) gets Dave (Reed) and Louise Andrews (Susan George) to help him to kidnap a wealthy American kid in London. Then the terrorists and several hostages are trapped in the boy’s  home when a deadly black mamba arrives on the scene.

[Spoiler alert] Even with all these important names, the film’s best performance comes from the killer black mamba, supposedly escaped, angry and sharing the London address with the villains. Among the plethora of seriously off-putting deaths, Dave (Reed) gets his comeuppance when the mamba does a dance of death with Dave (Reed)’s pants.

Director Haggard (The Blood on Satan’s Claw), who replaced Tobe Hooper, was shocked when he heard hilarity at the preview screening: ‘I thought I’d made a thriller,’ he complained.

The screenplay by Robert Carrington is based on Alan Scholefield’s novel.

Also in the cast are Cornelia Sharpe, Michael Gough, Mike Gwillim, Lance Holcombe, Hugh Lloyd, Rita Webb, Edward Hardwicke, John Forbes, Ian Brimble, Peter Porteus and Maurice Colbourne.

The producers thanked David Ball, overseer of reptiles at London Zoo, ‘without whose skill and courage in the handling of the deadly Black Mamba, this film could not have been made.’

It was shot at EMI Elstree Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8846

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