I saw this movie at a screening as well and it must have been a different version than the reviewer who thought it was "pure $hite". While the acting for the most part is typical teenager and a little disappointing except for the bad guy, the film looks fantastic, the actions sequences are great as well as the kills, some of which were hard to watch due to their realism. In this version at least, the cheesy special effects seem to be gone or at least vastly improved from what the other reviewer saw. It moves pretty well except for a few scenes of obligatory explanations regarding the voodoo deal and "teen angst", but there are a couple of really good scares as well as a good sustained overall tension throughout. The kills are brutal for the most part with one exception thats kind of lame, but the fight sequence close to the end is especially effective and looks just great as well as what has to be some new scenes, possibly even a new ending, since the lighting and overall look is so different from the rest of the film, but it still looks great. In my humble opinion it's definitely worth seeing and an R rating based on the blood and gore if thats what you expect from a horror movie. Gillespie definitely knows how to make an audience squirm.

It's hard to comment on this movie. It's one of the few movies Dimension actually has not shelved (it's hard to come up with a reason why) and it was rushed into a an unimpressive 500 theaters it's opening day. Maybe Dimension was afraid of how people would respond to a swamp creature using his tow truck to pull a house apart piece by piece.

Ray Sawyer is just a tow truck driver, until he rescues a Voodoo priestess from a bad car accident, and in return, he gets attacked by a bag full of snakes and drowns. At the morgue, Ray comes back to life, and stalks a group of teenagers who witnessed the awful crash occur.

What brings this movie down is it's paper thin characters. I didn't care for one moment about any of them. Also, the dialog was less than ho-hum. Also, it was very predictable. Characters did the typical stupid horror movie character things, like check creaky noises, call out people's names, and trip on a rock while being chased. I also could immediately pick out who the final girl would be. And why did the camera have those quick white flashes whenever somebody died or whenever the killer was shown?

What's good? Well, there is an impressive suspense scene where the killer walks underneath swamp waters to get to his victims and a tense sequence where the final girl must camouflage herself with bunch of other dead bodies while the killer looks on.

But other than that, It's another August/September disappointment. I was looking forward to it, but I did not get what was expected.

***May Contain Spoilers***

This movie is a pleasant surprise. While it is marketed to resemble a dozen movies similar to it, Venom has better than average plot development, an effectively eerie mood, and good suspense. The actors are unknowns, but they are believable. The film also avoids many horror movie clichés that would have otherwise dragged it down to a lower level.

Venom is evocative of many Wes Craven movies, especially Cursed, where another kind of "monster" is out attacking young people. In both, there is constant mayhem and suspense and the plots are easy to follow and moves quickly. I enjoyed the voodoo subtext here and even wished the story explained more of it and its role in motivating the killer.

Well worth a view on cable or DVD.