Venom — Venom(Blu Ray)
Venom aka The Legend of Spider Forest is an early 70’s mystery/ thriller film, with light touches of horror and action. It follows an English painter visiting a forest set Bavarian village and getting obsessed with a strange siren-like young woman who has a Spider birthmark. The film blends eerily moody-to- vaguely trippy/ erotic tinged woodland footage, subtle nods towards folk & gothic horror, with a primally focus on up-to-no good village’s mystery/ thriller. Here from Twilight Time is a new Blu Ray release of this lesser-seen film, featuring a new scan of the film and colour inlay booklet.
Venom/ The Legend of Spider Forest- in the US Spider's Venom, appeared in the year 1971. It’s a British production, that was directed by Melbourne born Peter Sykes- in total, he has nine feature-length credits to his time, as well as directing a fair few UK TV series episodes for the likes of The Avengers & Emmerdale Farm. His film credits take in two Hammer films- 1972’s psycho horror Demons Of The Mind, and 1976’s devil cult up-to-no-good horror/ thriller To The Devil A Daughter. Though he also did two rather dubious Brit TV comedy stars feature-length spin-offs- Frankie Howard led comedy horror The House In Nightmare Park and Steptoe & Son Rides Again- both from 1973. The Legend of Spider Forest was his first feature-length film, and it’s fair to say it can’t really make its mind up what it wants to be, with build-ups/ more promsing moments often falling flat.
The film is set in the then-present day, with the lead character being Paul Greville(Simon Brent)- who is staying in a small wooden Bavarian village to paint the local grand and dramatic landscape. One day while sitting at the forest edge easel in hand, he spies a darting and furtive red-haired woman(Neda Arneric)- he tries to talk to her, and photograph her- but she runs off. Going back to the village and the typical wary of stranger’s inn he’s staying in. Somehow the villages seem to know he’s photographed the strange girl, who they believed is cursed- and anyone who comes in contact with her dies from Spiders, as she has a spider mark on her shoulder.
As the film slowly unfolds Paul gets more & more obsessed with the red hair woman, who at first darts and flirts through the forest singing a sweet song, which is often enhanced by the films overly pronounced orchestrated score. Along the way, we get green-tinged flashbacks- which have subtle exotic and horror suggestions. There’s a fair bit of Spider related imagery and lots of moody shots of the just on the edge of the autumn forest. The main/ key focus here is really the decidedly shifty villages, which come off as a mix of those from The Wicker man and low key Straw Dogs locals. The film is very PG, and really this is the most frustrating thing about- as there’s no payoff to the promised/ suggested horror and sleazed elements in the film.
Acting-wise Brent is ok as the trying to figure out what’s really going on outsider. Arneric is good as the mysterious temptress/ siren- blending and blurring allure with moments of creepiness and seeming cruelty. Supporting cast wise- Gerard Heinz is effective as the up to no good/ but trying to be charming local sawmill owner, and Bette Vivian makes for a good creepy & sinister seeming keeper of the young woman. As briefly mentioned early, the orchestrated and big sound score is very overbearing- and sadly at times, it does squash the promising atmosphere flat.
On the whole, I’ll have to say I found Venom somewhat underwhelming- as it’s muddled in its genre tropes, the pacing is often a bit sluggish, with some fairly predictable characterisation- through worse it's a very PG/ tame film- which for a Spider related film has little or no bite.
As far as I can gather the Blu Ray is region free, with the 1080 HD print looking good, clear and crisp. There are no extras on the disc, though we do a glossy & colourful inlay booklet featuring new writing about the film and a good selection of film stills & poster artwork.
I would say if you have an interest in light, though moody forest set mystery thrillers with subtle folk and gothic horror touches you may get more from Venom than I did. Also, I guess if you have an interest in more tame British genre pictures of the ’70s, this could appeal too…. just don’t go into this expecting sleaze, gore or any real shock/ fear.