Venom

Venom

Director Jim Gillespie's hit slasher film from 1997, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER, saw four teens being stalked by a shadowy figure. In 2005, Gillespie helms VENOM, a further entry into the stalk-and-slash genre that sees the director returning to familiar ground. The plot follows a group of teenagers who meet their maker, or narrowly escape the clutches of a mysterious stalker. Set in Louisiana, voodoo has rippled through a local graveyard, and sucked up all the evil spirits of the dead who lie there, depositing them in a suitcase full of snakes. When local bad boy Ray (Rick Cramer), who is the scourge of the town's teen population, meets a grizzly demise in a car accident, the snakes are unleashed and Ray (AKA Mr. Jangles, so called because he collects keys from his dead victims) is resurrected. A few notable names, such as Bijou Phillips (ALMOST FAMOUS) and hip-hop star Method Man, feature among the cast as Mr. Jangles goes about his kill-crazy rampage, and Gillespie tweaks the plot to allow unexpected twists and turns to unfold. Plenty of violence and bloodletting ensues, while the lack of a post modern SCREAM-style approach to the film makes for a refreshing change, delivering a gratifying little shocker that contains enough gore and guts to appease horror fans.