4K UHD Review: Venom (1981)

4K UHD/Blu-ray Release Date: March 25, 2025
Price: 4K UHD/Blu-ray $39.36
Studio: Blue Underground/MVD

A trio of not-so-bright criminals plots to kidnap the 10-year-old grandson of a wealthy hotel owner from his London townhouse only to be plunged into a horrific evening with an uninvited houseguest guest—a lethal and aggressive Black Mamba snake that has accidentally been brought onto the scene! Wow, that bites…

Speaking of which, said snake wreaks a helluva lot of havoc as the kidnapping goes awry, setting up a hostage situation and giving way to a lot of surrounding law enforcers and a steady rise in the body count.

From 1981, Venom, directed by Piers Haggard, has been a cult favorite practically since its release, what with its nutty scenario and a game if clearly slumming cast that includes Oliver Reed (The Brood), Klaus Kinski (The Soldier), Nicol Williamson (Excalibur), Sterling Hayden (The Killing), Sarah Miles (Hope and Glory) and Susan George ( Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry). All offer appropriately over-the-top performances (I could have used a bit more oomph from the surprisingly restrained Kinski) but ultimately play second fiddle to the snake, who is given a number of effective POV shots and attack sequences as he slinks around the townhouse and makes his presence all to terrifyingly known.

Blue Underground has, of course, outfitted their latest edition of the film with a healthy collection of new bonus features. Alongside director Haggard’s archival commentary track from the label’s 2003 DVD edition, a new audio track features film scholars/critics Troy Howarth, Eugenio Ercolani and Nathaniel Thompson tracing the film’s production history, its place in canon of early Eighties British horror/thriller films and other salient points (the departure of original director Tobe Hooper) and diverting factoids (like that fact that Kinski chose to do Venom instead of Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark because the salary was higher!). A quartet of newly produced featurettes continues to fill in the blanks with fresh offerings from second unit director Michael Bradsell, makeup artist Nick Dudman, and critic Kim Newman and Allan Bryce.

Of course, the movie’s the thing and it looks and sounds outstanding in its 4K debut (just a tad better than its Blu-ray incarnation, which remains pretty darned impressive). In either format, it remains undeniably fun to see baddies Reed and Kinski meet their ends in such delightfully horrific manners, beginning with an injured Reed suffering the painful indignity of the mamba snaking its way up his pants leg and taking a seemingly fatal bite out of his crotch. Meanwhile, a furious, flailing Kinski buys it when he’s simultaneously attacked by the deadly serpent, riddled with bullets by a team of police snipers and plunged through a window to a wire awning several stories below.