Venom (1971 film)

Venom
Venom
	Opening title
Directed by	Peter Sykes
Screenplay by	Donald Ford; Derek Ford; additional dialogue; Christopher Wicking
Based on	an original story by Stephen Collins
Produced by	Michael Pearson; Kenneth F. Rowles
Starring	Simon Brent; Neda Arnerić; Sheila Allen
Cinematography	Peter Jessop
Edited by	Stephen Collins
Music by	John Simco Harrison
Production; companies	Cupid Productions; Action Plus Productions
Distributed by	Cupid Productions (UK); New Line Cinema (USA)
Release dates	2 May 1974 (UK); 1974 (US)
Running time	90 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Venom (also known as The Legend of Spider Forest, and Spider's Venom) is a 1971 British horror film directed by Peter Sykes and starring Simon Brent and Neda Arnerić .^[3]

Plot

On holiday in Bavaria, Paul Greville meets a girl in a forest. He later finds out she is Anna, and she has a spider-shaped mark on her shoulder. The locals believe she is the "spider goddess" responsible for several violent deaths. It later emerges that Anna's father, Dr. Lutgermann, is a Nazi war criminal who has developed a deadly nerve drug based on spiders' venom. He created the legend of the spider goddess as a cover for his killing of intruders. Paul and Anna escape while Lutgermann, attacked by deadly spiders released by Anna, accidentally sets fire to his house. Anna rushes back to try to save him.

Cast

Simon Brent as Paul Greville
Neda Arnerić as Anna
Sheila Allen as Ellen
Derek Newark as Johann
Terence Soall as Lutgermann
Gerard Heinz as Huber
Gertan Klauber as Kurt
Sean Gerrad as Rudi
Bette Vivian as Frau Kessler
Ray Barron as young man
Billy Reid as gang member
George Fisher as gang member
Nosher Powell as gang member

Production

Peter Sykes said when he was asked to make the film a script already existed. Sykes rewrote the script and the producers told him he had changed it too much from the original, which had received financial backing. So it changed it back while keeping some changes.

It was his directorial debut. "The film looked beautiful," said Sykes, saying he was influenced by Sunrise. The film led to Hammer Films offering him Demons of the Mind (1972).^[4]

Filming took place in October 1970 at Twickenham Studios and on location.^[5] Peter Sykes called it "more of a romantic fantasy with horror overtones. It touches on the genre I’m most interested in, which is the psychological horror story – Cat People [1942] and films like that. It’s a kind of comic strip myth."^[6]

Home media

The film was released on DVD by Cav Distributing Corporation on Jan. 31, 2006, as a part of a double-feature alongside God Told Me To (1976).^{[citation needed]} It was later released by W Video on May 2, 2017 under its alternate name Spider's Venom.^[7]

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote:

For a film which spends so much time, effort and style on mystification, Venom gives rather too much of the game away in an ill-advised and arty pre-credits sequence (all dancing sunlight and reflections on the water) which does sterling service later for minatory flashbacks ... Simon Brent and Neda Arneric are quite personable and perform very adequately, and Peter Sykes brings off several sequences of nicely sustained menace (though he does tend to destroy the carefully built-up atmosphere by obtrusive zooms at climactic moments), but it all seems like much ado about very little. Too many mysterious flutterings, feral cries and nocturnal threats, not to mention buzzing electrical saws, brandished axes and murderous villagers, tend to steal too much venom from the spiders who are supposed to be the villains.^[8]

Time Out London gave the film a mixed review, criticizing the film's script as being "full of holes", but commended the film's "tautly visual" action, and imaginative direction.^[9]

Dave Sindelar of Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings gave the film a negative review, criticizing the film's confusing plot, "jagged" direction, and poor camerawork.^[10]

References

^ "VENOM | British Board of Film Classification". Archived from the original on 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2020-05-31.
^ "VENOM | British Board of Film Classification". bbfc.co.uk.
^ "Venom". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
^ Gilbert, Basil (July 1977). "Peter Sykes". Cinema Papers. p. 36.
^ "Her name means no-yes". Thanet Times and East Kent Pictorial. 20 October 1970. p. 12.
^ Pirie, David (April 1971). "New Blood". Sight and Sound. p. 75.
^ "The Legend of Spider Forest (1974) - Peter Sykes". Allmovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
^ "Venom". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 41 (480): 136. 1 January 1974 – via ProQuest.
^ "Venom 1971, directed by Peter Sykes". TimeOut.com. Time Out London. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
^ Sindelar, Dave (24 April 2015). "The Legend of Spider Forest (1971)". FantasticMovieMusings.com. Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings. Retrieved 19 November 2019.