Venom (1981) 4K UHD Review

Blue Underground

Blu-ray Release: March 25, 2025

Video: 1.85:1/2160p (HDR10/Dolby Vision)/Color

Audio: English Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo and 5.1 

Subtitles: English SDH, French, and Spanish

Run Time: 92:26

Director: Piers Haggard

It was supposed to be the perfect crime: the sexy maid (Susan George), a psychotic chauffeur (Oliver Reed), and an international terrorist (Klaus Kinski) kidnap a wealthy ten year-old boy from his elegant London townhouse. But they didn’t count on a murdered cop, a desperate hostage siege, and one very unexpected houseguest: a furious Black Mamba, the most lethal and aggressive snake known to nature. It can attack from ten feet away. Its bite brings excruciating death. And it is on the loose. (From Blue Underground’s official synopsis)

You may not know it from the final production, but Piers Haggard’s modest thriller Venom (1981) was one of the most cursed productions of its era. The troubles began when director Tobe Hooper was hired to direct. While The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) had been a seismic film in terms of box office, critical attention, and shifting genre style, Hooper had spent the rest of the ‘70s developing a reputation in the industry as a difficult filmmaker. He started work on the film after being temporarily fired from his first post-Chain Saw film, Eaten Alive (aka: Death Trap and Starlight Slaughter, 1977), and permanently fired from The Dark (completed by John 'Bud' Cardos, 1979), only to be fired again from Venom early into production, stating ‘creative differences.’ 

Haggard is better remembered as the director of The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), one of the ‘big three’ English folk horror films, alongside Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968) and Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973), as well as the original 1979 Quatermass TV miniseries, was brought onto the volatile situation on short notice. Hooper had escaped a vicious feud brewing between two of the four headline stars, Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski, both men infamous for their on and off-set misbehavior. Reed was in the throes of alcoholism and could not help but poke the prissy bear that was Kinski, who himself was about a year away from a notorious meltdown on set of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982) – the most cursed film of the ‘80s.

With the production woes in mind, it was a minor miracle that Haggard was able to hobble together the film at all, especially considering that the final product doesn’t seem at all hobbled together.

Based on Alan Scholefield’s 1977 novel of the same name, Venom is a frothy hostage thriller that was advertised as a killer snake movie with most of its original posters prominently displaying either a scaly black mamba illustration or a simple fanged logo over black text. Other posters had taglines that compared the film to other killer animal movies, like The Birds (1963) and Jaws (1977), implying further connections to a mid/late ’70s boom of ecohorror films, like William Girdler’s Grizzly (1976) and Jeff Lieberman’s Squirm (1976). Almost none of the advertising featured images of Reed, Kinski, Sterling Hayden, or Susan George, all of whom were still bankable stars in 1982, when Venom was finally released in American and European cinemas.

Curiously, the killer snake is barely a supporting player in this character-based hostage thriller. It’s an ironic accident and device to complicate a kidnapping scheme, not a man-eating monster. I like to imagine that a lot of drive-in and grindhouse audiences expected something along the lines of Arthur A. Names’ Snakes (1974) or William Fruet’s Spasms (technically released a year after Venom in 1983 and also starring Oliver Reed), and were left scratching their heads. Once you know Venom isn’t a creature feature, the use of the snake as a monkey wrench is a pretty clever narrative trick, one that affords Haggard a chance to get a little flashy with his otherwise practical direction.

Aside from the snake, the film leans heavily on the talents of its cast. Reed, Kinski, George, Hayden, Nicol Williamson, and Sarah Miles all deliver the kinds of typecast performances that their fans would expect and enjoy, but Reed and Kinski, in particular, are one-note baddies. There isn’t a lot of room for growth, unlike, say, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), where the dynamic between hostages and hostage takers is constantly evolving. The dialogue is sorely lacking for memorable lines, too, which is sort of a symptom of the film’s larger attempt at respectability. At its heart, Venom is a silly B-movie masquerading as a serious A-picture and viewers’ enjoyment will vary based on their tolerance for the awkward balancing act. Personally, I liked it a lot more knowing exactly what to expect the second time around.

Video

Blue Underground saved Venom from obscurity when it released it on DVD in 2003. That same restored, anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer was used for a PAL version via Anchor Bay UK and later anamorphic transfers appeared in Australia (via Force Video), Germany (via Anolis), and Holland (via Indies). They also ushered the film onto Blu-ray by returning to the negative for a 2K rescan. That already good-looking disc now has a substantial upgrade on 4K UHD. The 1.85:1, 2160p transfer was created from a new 4K 16-bit scan of the original 35mm internegative and is boosted by a nice HDR/Dolby Vision punch up. As per usual, I cannot get screencaps from 4K discs, but my screener also came with a Blu-ray version of the new restoration, so I’ve included some 1080p caps to illustrate the upgrades, minus the extra resolution and HDR.

Venom is a dark and gritty movie and Blue Underground has resisted the urge to DNR away the imperfections built into cinematographers Denys Coop and Gilbert Taylor’s naturally-lit, somewhat diffused photography (I believe that the majority of the film was shot by Taylor, for the record). The new scan is similar to the initial Blu-ray, but corrects a lot of minor machine noise, revealing finer, though aggressive film grain, which has a slightly brownish quality. Though I’ve never seen the film in theaters, I’m under the impression that the brown-yellow overall tint is more accurate than the DVD release’s greenish hue. That said, this isn’t a vivid film and there aren’t many colorful highlights for the HDR upgrade to draw from. Black levels are clean, deep, and appear accurate, even when the overall darkness overwhelms some of the finer detail, because, again, I assume this was the intended look.

Audio

Venom is presented in its original 2.0 in uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio alongside a new Dolby Atmos version of Blue Underground’s own remix (similar 6.1 and 7.1 remixes were included on the company’s DVD and Blu-ray releases, respectively). While I typically opt for original tracks over post-release fiddling, Blue Underground has put a lot of care into the remix, sticking to the basic stereo field and ensuring that it doesn’t have too many unnecessary directional add-ons. The discreet centering of the dialogue is the biggest plus and helps to mitigate the muffled quality of the 2.0 track. Michael Kamen’s score, which has a classy, primetime television vibe to it, also gets a solid bass boost from the Atmos mix’s LFE channel, but is actually a smidge louder on the original stereo mix.

Extras

Disc 1 (4K UHD)

• Commentary with director Piers Haggard – This director’s commentary, moderated by The Cult Films of Christopher Lee (Eaton Books, 2000) author Jonathan Cothcott, first appeared on Blue Underground’s DVD version of Venom and is a very informative breakdown of the troubled production. Cothcott occasionally joggs Haggard’s memory, ensuring that he rarely runs out of things to talk about, even after the majority of the juicy behind-the-scenes anecdotes have been revisited. There are a few silent spots, mostly pushed to the final 30 minutes of the movie.

• Commentary with Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson, and Eugenio Ercolani – A new 4K exclusive track featuring Real Depravities: The Films of Klaus Kinski (self published, 2016), Mondo Digital guru Howarth, and filmmaker/author of Darkening the Italian Screen: Interviews with Genre and Exploitation Directors Who Debuted in the 1950s and 1960s (McFarland, 2019), who explore the insane production, the careers and trouble lives of the cast & crew, shared themes throughout Haggard’s work, and differences between the film and the original novel. 

• Theatrical trailer and teaser

Disc 2 (Blu-ray)

• Commentary with director Piers Haggard

• Commentary with Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson, and Eugenio Ercolani

• Fangs for the Memories (26:12, HD) – The all-new filmmaker interviews begin with editor/second unit director Michael Bradsell discussing his involvement in the film, the production breakdown, Haggard being brought on, being drafted into the second unit directing role, and on-set snake safety.

• A Slithery Story (21:00, HD) – Makeup artist Nick Dudman chats about his job under department lead Basil Newall (who was his mentor), Hooper’s firing and Haggard’s hiring, Reed and Kinski’s blow-up arguments, enjoying the company of the rest of the cast, snake safety, and analog vs. CG creature effects.

• Mamba Memories (23:29, HD) – Critic and author of Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s (Bloomsbury, 2011), Kim Newman, looks back at the killer animal pulp novel and B-movie booms of the ‘60s/’70s, Venom’s place in the pantheon, and the careers of the cast & crew with focus on Hooper, Reed, and Haggard. He also makes the good point that the snake is sort of a hero, because it only attacks bad guys.

• Pick Your Poison (15:26, HD) – Allan Bryce, the author of Amicus, The Studio That Dripped Blood (Stray Cat, 2000), closes things out with a focus on British horror during the early ‘80s, Haggard’s life and work, and the various on-set troubles.

• Teaser, trailer, and three TV spots

• Poster and still gallery

The images on this page are taken from the included Blu-ray copy – NOT the 4K UHD – and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.