Venomous (2001) Review

WEEK 2: SLITHERING SERPENTS 

Venomous (2001) Review

It’s usually pretty easy to predict what you’re going to get with killer snake films. Typically there's a snake, or a bunch of snakes, perhaps giant, a bunch of people get attacked, and some militaristic organization or cunning snake killer comes in to save the day and kill the snake(s). Venomous is not your average killer snake film, and while it’s nice to see a different take on the scaly serpents, it’s not the kind of take fans of the usual snake film described above might be begging for.

To begin with, the opening scene is a poor indication of what the rest of the movie is going to be like. Two undercover characters infiltrate a militarized science center housing a bunch of rattlesnakes carrying a deadly virus. The acting and dialogue in this first scene is pretty bad and cheesy, and the way it ends makes the low-budget evident. The building gets blown up, along with a helicopter, and it’s very clearly a miniature. I appreciate the attempt to use a miniature instead of poor cgi, but it still looks fake. The snakes escape, and find their way underground, later emerging in a small California town after a series of earthquakes frees them. The main character is the town’s doctor, played by Treat Williams, and when a number of people start coming to the ER and dying before he can cure them, he begins investigating the mystery, and it’s not long before the US army comes in to help contain the epidemic. 

Venomous is marketed as an action horror film, but it really isn’t. It’s not really even a killer animal film. It’s sort of like the movie Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman, only with infected snakes instead of monkeys, and a way smaller budget, and instead of a great actor like Hoffman, it has Treat Williams. Treat Williams isn’t an awful actor, and he has been in some pretty good movies, but he’s also been in some pretty bad ones. His acting here is fine, but the side characters are a little less dull. There’s a sub-plot with him and his ex-wife, and while some viewers might not give this aspect of the movie a second thought, as someone who has seen this sort of movie many times, I thought it came off as some very unoriginal, uninteresting filler material.

Venomous is a direct-to-DVD film, but it’s still nowhere near the realm of awful that many direct-to-DVD snake movies end up in (as we will see in the coming days). Once the silly opening comes to pass, the movie settles into a quieter, understated story for the most part, and it’s fun to watch the virus spread through the town; snake bites guy, guy goes to hospital, nurse cuts her hand on the glass he drank from, guy goes to work at diner, serves infected burger to woman, and so on. This is not as crazy of a concept as a giant man-eating snake like a giant anaconda or a cobra possessed by Satan. In fact, it’s pretty well grounded in reality and largely believable. As far as the infected rattlesnakes go, they hardly ever act unrealistic, and are as scary as real-life rattlesnakes can be. The action builds up as much as the budget can allow, and there are a couple brutal moments where characters you thought would make it end up dead.

Despite all the praise I just gave, this movie is not anything spectacular; it’s not even quite good. Aside from the opening scene, there are a few other moments where the low-budget becomes really obvious. A few shots of the snakes in an underground cavern are shown in close-ups, and for every real snake there are half a dozen rubber snakes that are, very clearly, rubber snakes. To be fair, aside from these random moments, the filmmakers did a good job  to make Venomous appear less low-budget than it actually is.

The biggest issue, which is an all-encompassing one, is the odd lethargy draped over nearly every scene. It’s hard to describe, but it seems everything from the acting to the pacing to even the movements of the characters is tempered. There’s almost no sense of panic, ever. Even in what might be the most intense scene of the movie, where a guy tries to take his brother out of the hospital with a gun pointed at the doctors, the guy seems pretty chill, and none of the doctors look more than a little concerned. As I said, this movie is understated and tries to be realistic, but it simply lacks the intensity that could have elevated it from average to something more. By the ending, the excitement levels jump maybe one notch, but the ending is not particularly thrilling or unexpected, though not bad, and that’s basically how I can sum up this entire movie. It’s not bad, per say, but it’s nowhere close to great.

Venomous is lacking as a killer snake film, but decent as a medical disaster film. It’s certainly very different from all the other films I’m reviewing this month, and if you want something outside the standard creature-feature fare, this might suffice. The snakes are not out to get everyone, but they’re still a formidable threat. If you’re new to this sub-genre, I recommend checking out Venomous before moving on to other more prominent killer snake films.