User reviews

I like Treat Williams, I think he's always been a very underrated actor relegated to a b-movie career. Alas this film is a prime example.

All about an outbreak of a virus spread by rattlesnakes and a crack medical team trying to contain it.

But you know the drill, they aren't just up against the snakes no no they also battle the evil government who want to handle the situation differently which would result in a larger loss of life.

Predictable stuff, you'll have seen it done before and better but it has its moments.

For crying out loud though do pets have to die in every single film? This one is particularly merciless in that regard.

The Good:

Treat Williams

The Bad:

Opening scene was unnecessarily sad

Not pet friendly....

This was a movie very similar to "Outbreak". Its an OK movie, its entertainment. But it doesn't score that high points with me. Not that bad acting though. The movie had some strange events which I must conclude as errors. Like meeting cars on a closed road for example. You're always one step ahead of the plot.

The bad military has made up a bad virus again. This time rattlesnakes provide the infection by biting people. People that look very normal after the bite, but later get a kind of flu. It could have been a funny mockbuster, but the movie takes itself too serious. Every story part is told by the main characters. Not by acting, by telling. So you can watch it by being told what happens - it's like an audiobook with pictures. The characterplay is a little wooden, the story too long winded. On many points happen logical mistakes that can't be missed by the eye. I won't watch this twice.

VENOMOUS (2001 Video)

BASIC PLOT: Unknown terrorists blow up a secret government lab, letting loose infected snakes. These snakes are dormant for awhile, until a series of earthquakes piss off these scheming snakes, and they go on a rampage! Look out town folk, the snakes are infected, and they are coming for you!

WHAT WORKS: *This movie is hilarious, as are most Fred Olen Ray movies. The movie is in on the joke, and so should you be if you're watching a movie called, "Venomous".

*The cheesy errors are part of the fun. Old news helicopters as Army choppers, 15 different types of paint sprayer respirators, instead of biological suits, civilians with anti aircraft missiles, doctors that are also snake ranglers, what more could you ask for?

*There's lots of good B actors having a hell of a good time, making it more fun to watch.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *Needs more snakes!

TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *If you like hilariously bad movies, that are in on the joke, you like this. If you're a fan of bad disaster movies, you'll like this. If you like Fred Olen Ray movies, or Treat Williams, you'll like this. If you're a no sense of humor having, fussy stick in the mud, then give this a pass.

CLOSING NOTES: *This is a Straight-to-Video movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. Straight-to-Video movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.

*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews. Hope I helped you out.

I love Treat Williams, but I think even he knew that this one the snakes couldn't even digest. Can we say 'ripoff'? Almost right out of "Outbreak", except the only good thing about it was that Treat was in it. I wasted $2.00 buying the VHS. I'm so happy it wasn't more. Overly cheesy, very predictable, badly directed, terrible continuity (really didn't have any), and worse with the script. Arrgh.

I feel pain every time I see one of these movies and wonder who I can hit up for a budget. I'm sure I can do much better. Much. Somebody give me 1M and I'll give you a wonderful movie or two.

Oops, IMDb wants ten lines of text for the comments, so I have to fill this in a bit.

Don't watch it, don't buy it, don't rent it...run, as fast as you can from this movie. It might cause vomiting, gagging, laughter, or anger.

I thought this was gonna be your typical brainless horror flick with the usual anti-establishment drivel to entertain the masses but lo and behold, it weren't so bad! The great unwashed will enjoy it but so will the average filmgoer who wants a bit more for his few bucks. Rattlesnakes get a bad break here but Treat Williams' character deals with them with respect and there is none of this revulsion that "Jaws" had for the sharks - guess we learned a lesson - Mother Nature does have a balancing act somewhere. The usual military stereotypes are villainous but redemption is at hand nonetheless. Enough of my philosophizing, get your popcorn and enjoy this movie. Do not watch it on TV - too many commercials will ruin it, rent it or buy it instead. Out here in HK, I paid $20HKD or about $2.50USD - not bad at all!! ha ha A pleasant surprise - enjoy.

Apart from the fact that there are a lot of "cheap" shots of rattlesnakes popping their heads out of a hill and snarling in anger during earth tremors, I found story to be weak and the acting barely mediocre. Other scenes are barely credible if at all like when the good doctor is looking for a rattlesnake specimens he walks a short distance down an underground tunnel, picks a few rattlers and out of nowhere, his return path is covered by snakes. Undaunted, our hero calmly shoves them aside with his foot while above ground, the good citizens are killed by single snakes that seem to wait inside the house beside toasters to pounce at the unsuspected.

As you might be able to tell from my nickname, I am a snake NUT. So, viewing this movie was essential for me, no matter what the quality of the film was SUPPOSED to be. Going in with my eyes wide open, I was aware immediately of two things: 1. The movie is VERY low budget, and 2. The effects were, for the most part, very realistic.

While I can't say that the movie fails to entertain, it does have problems. The acting is average at best, the plot is predictable, and the style of filming is very much like a made-for-TV movie. Think of a Stephen King ABC Mini-Series, and that sums up the film's style.

That said, what the movie does right also impressive. There is no computer animation, and at no point do any of the slithering baddies of the film do anything "supernatural". The reptile action is very plausible, a refreshing change from other recent pictures like "Anaconda" and "Python". What the film also does right is not take itself too seriously. There is not a lot of over-acting, and no character in the film seems beyond belief. One thing I also appreciated was the fact that the snakes are treated as a menace, but not as villains.

Where "Venomous" fails most notably is its lack of ability to build suspense. There is one particular scene that stands out among the rest, but aside from that golden moment, little else is particularly chilling.

I have read reviews of this film that call it a copy of "Outbreak". While there are several similar elements, "Venomous" does stand well on its own. The running time is nearly an hour shorter between these two movies, and "Venomous" does a good job of character development. It also focuses more on the carriers of the virus than the virus itself.

"Venomous" also relies on stock footage more than once, perhaps to keep the overall budget down. I will be general here not to spoil any of the film's moments: There is one crash scene where the vehicle crashing is TOTALLY different from the one in the previous shot. Watch for it with your remote in hand, it is amusing that the film makers thought no one would notice.

My overall opinion? Rent before you buy, and only buy if you really like snakes.

I am compelled to write about this video now that I've just finished watching it. This is a movie I would recommend others to watch at least "once."

This is not a classic, but it has a good story line and several subplots. It could very easily have become a tear-jerker. I disagree with people who say that the acting was bad. The acting was better than the "direction" (directing) in my opinion.

In the hands of better director(s) and a bit of a more refined plot, the video would have received much better reception.

Personally I vouch for a remake with the above enhancements.

This is a decent candidate for worst movie of the decade, century, etc. My wife and I watched the whole thing with our jaws hanging down, shocked at how bad it was. It has become a reference point: We now compare other bad movies to "Venomous" and vote on whether it is under or over the very low bar that it sets. If you actually watch it, be forewarned. And check out the army guy in the helicopter hanging out & threatening to shoot the local citizens, although he never does and the copter looks more like a evening news helicopter than a military chopper. I like Treat Williams, he is a very capable actor. I cannot for the life of me understand why he would agree to do this movie unless it was simply for the money. But one thing the creators got right is the title, "Venomous," because it is really lethal. You watch something like this and think, jeez, I could do something this good without even trying hard. Yes, this movie puts the "b" in bad, the only redeeming factor is that we didn't have to pay to see it.

There are lousy movies, there are terrible movies and ten levels down there is Venomous, it might become a new definition for absolute waste of film, money and time. Dialogue more than in the nose, incredibly unbelievable performance, one of the poorest directions I've ever seen, it's amazing this movie is not signed as an "Alan Smithee" film. The music goes with the plot, absolutely unimaginative. Foreshadowing comes a mile before you get to the scene you've guessed long ago. I believe it's a waste of time to add more reviews, but after reading the "best movies go straight to video" comment really struck me as misleading to say the least. Probably the reviewer is the writer himself. I've seen college stuff that is a thousand times better than this film, and I'm talking about the worst projects! If you're in for a good laugh at how some movies can get to be stupid, rent it and prepare to laugh. The sheer mention of John Carpenter in the review is insulting. John Carpenter is good at its job. This pseudo-filmmaker is an obvious relative to some producer or investor.

After a strange series of attacks, a small-town doctor and his staff find that a military cover-up involving a deadly virus transmitted through venomous snake bites released by a terrorist attack and disturbed by seismic activity forcing them to come together to stop them.

This here was a decent if decidedly unimpressive offering. Among the few positives here is the fact that there are quite a few scenes with the snakes here that really plays up the advantage of using the real animals. The fact that the scenes involving them are quite fun, from the first scenes of them biting on the civilians and the outbreak that causes the different quick-shot attacks that are carried out in the houses around town which are quite nicely handled in instigating their need for the quarantine. There's a great deal of these scenes that work throughout here due to the others carrying out the need for the real-sized snakes which has the nice lead-in to the different action scenes in the finale where there are all sorts of big fun to be had with the military ambush tactics and the big ambushes trying to get their plan under control. However, this is all that really works here since this one doesn't really have a whole lot to really enjoy and has a ton of flaws. Among the biggest ones is the fact that there's just not a whole lot the film can do with the rating featured here as it really neuters the possibilities for action within here. There's not a whole lot of vicious or graphic kills throughout here and the most blood shown is in a series of test-tube vials so it really leaves a lot of chances of to the sidelines which makes it feel rather weak. There's also the films' incredibly weak and obvious low-budget tone here which comes off quite apparent in the final half but is still a big deal throughout here, giving this one the kind of weak-toned and out of control with how it carries out these elements. Along with a distinct lack of action and confined sets, the film's biggest action scenes here are all stock footage scenes taken from other movies that includes several car chases taken to escape from the authorities and to later escape from the confined area and it containing action scenes and explosions taken from other films that really seems obvious with the change in audio and video quality during these scenes that highlights the pilfering. The film's last flaw is the fact that the actions could've been avoided had the nonsensical cover-up never occurred as everything that happens from the outbreak of the virus to the town quarantine and the snakes getting loose is due to their cover-up of the tests and the snakes being there. These here really hold this down.

Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and scenes involving strong suggested child violence.

Have said more than once about not having anything against low budget, as there are plenty of films that don't do a bad job with limitations, providing that actual effort is put in. Do like creature features, whether lots of fun, genuinely scary or turn-brain-off-at-the-door, again providing that signs of trying is evident. And Treat Williams is hardly talent-free, but he had been deserving of better projects for a while, and still is.

Something that doesn't change here with 'Venomous'. There are far worse films overall around, far worse low-budget films and far worse creature films. That still doesn't mean that 'Venomous' isn't bad, it is, very bad and really cannot make any excuses or defense for it. Really did try and take it for what it was and what it tried to be, have always done that for everything, but the flaws are far too many and they are far from big ones.

Williams does do his best with his material, which is well beneath him (lots of cheesy dialogue and a character that one struggles to get behind), and compared to everything else he comes off serviceably.

Everything else is executed ineptly. None of the rest of the acting is remotely good, it doesn't even come close to weak level. Tony Denison is beyond irritating in particular. They do have to work with a script that is all awkward cheese and no venom and characters that are all blandly sketchy and annoying, with seemingly few logical thoughts in their brain, but considering that Williams managed to do something with what he had those things shouldn't be excuses really for how bad the acting is. The direction is barely existent.

Furthermore, the story is truly ridiculous and not very interesting. It's coherent, but it's just lazy and silliness gone overboard. All the fun is sucked out as a result and there is no tension and even less suspense. The low budget show painfully, there is a lot of amateurish stuff here visually with the effects looking like they were done as an afterthought with the little remainder of money left. There is nothing scary, entertaining or even interesting about the rattlesnakes, they are just there with nothing to them.

All in all, very bad. 2/10

(2001) Venomous HORROR/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Low budget, straight-to-rental film which starts off with a couple of media reporters who are really terrorists successfully blowing up a government facility full of experimental infected snakes. Washington doesn't do anything about it nor try to destroy the so-called evidence -not even a cover up, since these snakes are much more deadlier than average snakes. A small town is nearby with Treat Williams playing a doctor of the local hospital. And while he's getting patients with snake bites, he's unaware about the severity of the problem until some of his patients started dying on him after finding out that people with snake bites also contaminate other people by means of saliva and can also die in the same amount of time. There's also a silly gov't cover up thing too involving the American army keeping everyone in town since there's no cure and is being treated as an epidemic. Quarantined the entire town by allowing the town to die by itself without media reporters and the President labeling it as collateral damage. Because the movie is like almost 2 hours, it's all very low budget and very relative.

If you're a fan of disaster movies, you'll enjoy this one. Acting by the principal characters was excellent, except for Anthony Denison who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. He provides the comic relief, and the lines he had to recite were ludicrous. An interesting subplot between the two principal characters carries the movie. If you like to watch the science in these movies, there's an error in the premise. You don't get antibodies from the snake venom. You get them from the bloodstream. But it wouldn't have been half as fun watching them try to draw blood from a snake as to milk it for venom. This movie was great fun to watch.

I love Treat Williams. I would have turned this off if the main character had been played by anyone else.

So,okay, I can believe the government is growing a nasty virus. But I can't believe that the snakes were the only thing to survive the lab explosion. But I can't believe the first victim had a temp of 106 and no one thought to use ice to bring his temp down. Or that the end of his IV was nowhere near his vein. Or a nurse would be so stupid as to pick up shards of broken glass with bare hands. Or that the writers couldn't decide how the virus was spread so they used contact, air born, respiratory- on a cheeseburger? Really? Don't waste your time- unless you really like Treat Williams and hate snakes.