Bloodtype Online

    Criminals infiltrate the staff of a wealthy family with the intention of kidnapping their young son and hold him for ransom.  They wait until the boy’s mother is out of town and his grandfather is at a business lunch to grab him, but their plans are foiled when the boy leaves the house to pick up his newest pet.  The nanny, who is in on the crime, tries to hurry him out of the house.  But the boy won’t leave until his new pet is safely away in it’s cage, so she hurriedly opens the box.  Unfortunately the harmless snake that was supposed to be in the container is actually an aggressive and deadly black mamba, which quickly dispatches the nanny.  This throws the whole plan into disarray and leads to the two remaining kidnappers being trapped in the house that is now surrounded by police with the boy, his grandfather, and the deadly snake.  In the chaos one of the kidnappers panics and kills a police officer.  Now the criminals have a choice to either surrender to the police or to negotiate an escape with the boy as leverage.  The second choice means that they will have to stay in the house and deal with the deadly snake.   

    This is a difficult movie for me to review.  If I were to just take the movie at face value I would have to say that the plot is paper thin and predictable.  While the movie makes a real effort to be suspenseful it fails.  I was always able to tell when the snake was going to pop up because of the heightened music and the way the camera would focus on a curtain or cabinet door.  Also while the movie is cast with a group of genre veterans such as Susan George, Oliver Reed, and the king of schlock himself Klaus Kinski this really isn’t their best work.  So it probably sounds like I’m not fond of the movie.  The truth is that I really liked it.  First of all snakes really freak me out, so a movie about a snake slithering around the house was pretty nerve racking for me to watch.  Additionally I rather enjoyed watching Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski hamming it up onscreen together.  I also wanted to mention the scene where Klaus Kinski’s character has his final showdown with the snake.  I’ve not seen such a performance since Bela Lugosi “wrestled” an octopus!  Finally the presence or Reed and Kinski, as well as the clothing and music in the movie gives Venom a decidedly 70s feel to it.  This is in spite of the fact that it was released in the early 80s.   

    So I’ve put a lot of caveats in my review of the movie, but if snakes freak you out, or if you are in the mood for a cheesy movie with some familiar faces then I recommend that you check out Venom.  I had fun with it and I expect that many of you will as well.   

Rating - ***

-John "El Juan" Shatzer