Venom (2005)

A pack of teenagers run for their lives through the swamps of Louisiana, as they are chased by Mr. Jangles, a man possessed by 13 evil souls who is relentless in his pursuit of new victims.

Director:

Jim Gillespie

Writers:

Flint Dille (screenplay), John Zuur Platten (screenplay),

Stars:

Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Meagan Good

Cast

Cast overview:
Agnes Bruckner	...	Eden Sinclair
Jonathan Jackson	...	Eric
Laura Ramsey	...	Rachel
D.J. Cotrona	...	Sean
Rick Cramer	...	Ray Sawyer
Meagan Good	...	Cece
Bijou Phillips	...	Tammy
Method Man	...	Deputy Turner
Pawel Szajda	...	Ricky
Davetta Sherwood	...	Patty
Stacey Travis	...	Laura
Marcus Lyle Brown	...	Terry Parker (as Marcus Brown)
James Pickens Jr.	...	Sheriff
Deborah Duke	...	Miss Emmie

Storyline

Eric and his Yankee teenage mates travel South by motorbike to a swampy backwater town in Louisiana, where Sean's father Ray lived, the local tow truck driver, who abandoned the then baby-boy and his mother. Ray recently died, while trying to rescue a voodoo witch and at her urging her trunk, which got opened and released the poisonous serpents possessed by the souls of truly evil sinners she trapped in them. Ray was bitten and possessed as the car sunk, and shortly after it's dragged out rises as an 'undead' zombie, who murders without provocation and is immune to lethal weapons. He soon finds the teens' trace and proves his indiscriminately evil blood-thirst by charging his only offspring equally lethally. However they were warned by Eden's friend Cece, the witch's granddaughter, who explained the situation in her home and assures them when the zombie attacks it's safe thanks to a 'blessed' spell preventing evil from entering; alas the chain- and crowbar-waving undead finds a way ...

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Plot Keywords:

voodoo | louisiana | undead | swamp | zombie | 

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Taglines:

He Never Hurt A Soul Until The Day He Died.

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Genres:

Thriller | Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong horror violence/gore, and language

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Backwater

Filming Locations:

Amite, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$519,489 (USA) (16 September 2005)

Gross:

$881,745 (USA) (14 October 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Dimension Films, Outerbanks Entertainment, Collision Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally entitled "Backwater".

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Goofs

When Sean is pulled through the window with the chain by Ray Sawyer, the whole window behind him shatters. However, a few moments later inside the house - the window has somehow repaired itself.

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Quotes

Sean: That can't be Ray.
Rachel: It's Ray, Sean.
Sean: Yeah, but Ray is dead.
[Ray throws a chain through the window, wrapping around sean's neck, dragging him out]
Rachel, Eden Sinclair, Eric, Cece: SEAN!

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits we hear the sound of Ray's keys jangling

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Soundtracks

"Permanent"
Written by Courtney June, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven
Performed by Courtney Jaye
Courtesy of The Island Def Jam Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Venom is useless without fangs

Deep in the cajun hell of Lousiana swamps an old women uncovers a suitcase guarded by a fang gris-gris. Within it lies a dark secret of voodoo rituals, which the woman, a Voodoo mambo, aims to recover in order to bury or destroy. Unfortunately her car participates in a road accident which releases the contents of the suitcase - two venomous snakes. Ray (Rick Cramer), a tow-truck driver, is attacked by the snakes and is soon after found dead in the water by local. Soon afterwards however Ray rises from the dead and starts his murderous rampage...

A horror story like many others. And due to this immensely hard to review. The scenery backdrop of the story is naturally encapsulating, but that is all that keeps you involved. Other from that this snakes mouth is full of rotting fangs, which fall out one by one leaving a toothless monster story to painfully unfold. Characters are barely brushed upon, while the story bogs down into inconsistencies and copycat repetitiveness. Almost each scare or kill reeks of deja vu. Some of the scenes even seem to borrow from others in the same movie. The movie starts off with a silent hiss and ends abruptly when the script finally runs out of air. Doomed to be a passing memory in the horror genre and only a fleeting memory in my mind, noted only by the existence of this scarce review.