Creatures of War #22: Venom (1971)

Good for her?

Updates

I’ve had a really strange February, but onwards and upwards. In some good news, I have been forcing myself to read more books. I used to read rapidly and in great quantities, but last year I struggled to finish anything at all. To fix this, I’ve started keeping a book at work to read on my lunch break and set aside time at home to listen to audiobooks. Last week I finished The Running Man by Stephen King¹ and look forward to seeing the film adaptation. I started an audiobook of The Militia House by John Milas and if I enjoy it maybe I’ll do a post on it. Beyond that, nothing new to report.

Review

Venom, or The Legend of the Spider Forest, is a British psychological horror film set in rural Bavaria. Our leading man, Paul, is a traveling artist who is not quite as sketched out by the weird locals, spiders, and the beautiful woman who he repeatedly encounters in the forest, as he should be. The community insists that the woman, Anna, is a spider goddess and that any man who touches her will die a horrible death. Paul cannot resist pursuing Anna despite the rumors, but his attempts at romance entangle him with the town’s sawmill owner, a secret Nazi trying to bring back the Third Reich.

For a movie with so many wheels turning, Venom never gains much speed. The first half of the film is filled with beautiful scenery: lush pines loom over a tiny yellow Volkswagon as it meanders the curves of rural roadways, brown cows with flower crowns, forest shrines, cozy taverns. I have never been to Germany, but the setting reminded me of where I currently live. Timber (a logging train is currently assaulting my ears as I write this), dirt roads, and intense locals. Despite its marketing as a horror picture, Venom instead presents a fairytale. I wish it stayed in a storybook for the whole film, but the writing insisted on forcing a darker turn. The mad scientist plotline is poorly integrated and turns the previous fantasyland into an incomprehensible web that even the laziest spider would be ashamed of. Venom tosses aside a goddess for a Nazi-experimentation film, and that’s such a waste. For me, someone with a newsletter about many Nazi-experimentation movies, to call that plot twist a waste? That’s telling.

I just wanted more from Venom. More sleaze or more constraint, more consistency or more strangeness, more commitment to anything at all. Venom is the most obscure movie I think I’ve seen to date, but as much as I wanted more from it I can’t say it deserves to be buried. The last frame almost made me want to restart the whole film. Anna looks up at the camera as the remains of the lab burn around her. She had willingly run into the fire and sat there smiling, waiting to cook. While I found the characters of Venom to be underdeveloped and aimless, this last scene of Anna had the spark I was searching the rest of the runtime for. I can’t say I understand the end, but at the very least it presents something to sink my teeth into. I don’t think this film is a success, but someone with some more focus, or some more outlandish vision, could take the skeleton of Venom and set it marching again. Or possibly, Venom is still waiting for its time and its audience, and I’m just another tourist passing it by.

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Not so good for her

When Paul first encounters Anna, he attempts to take her picture. She says nothing during this interaction but backs away from him, clearly unwilling to be photographed. He then pursues her and attempts to chase her up the side of a hill, camera in hand. Anna is consistently chased by men in the film, only for them to die horrible deaths. This first meeting and Anna’s interactions with other men are contrasted by a later scene in which Anna and Paul run as she laughs and is willingly caught by him.

I had a hard time pinning down why Anna would fall in love with Paul. The obvious answer is that she’s been sheltered and devoid of love for so long that as soon as a man is willing to put in the work, she decides he’s the one². Anna (to my memory) wears the same outfit the whole movie. A very beautiful, cleavage-enhancing, floral dress that is incredibly inconvenient for prancing around in the woods, but is certainly effective at catching strange men. Paul almost treats Anna like a mysterious, wild animal that he alone can tame. I don’t think he loves her so much as he likes the challenger and thrill of it all. Their dynamic reminded me of Ava and Caleb’s relationship in Ex Machina (2015). In case you haven’t seen that movie I won’t spoil it, but I kinda wish Venom ended similarly.

There’s been a recent trend in horror/romances of female revenge or “good for her” movies: Companion (2025), Fesh (2022), Your Monster (2024), etc. While Venom ends similarly with the female protagonist burning everything down while she gleefully watches on, Anna is also burning herself down. She thought she was part of the problem and knew she would never be happy living out her days playing into a different fairy-tale with Paul. Like a lot of “good for her” movies, the ending was not really all that good for her. Paul, of course, gets to continue on his travels unscathed.³

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That’s all

Would I recommend Venom? Honestly, not really. It’s mostly a messy bore, but if it sounds interesting to you then go ahead. I can see this being someone’s cup of tea.

Bonus recommendations:

• Diabolique (1955) - I’ve always heard this was good but kinda didn’t believe it. Don’t be like me, watch it.

• The Collection (2012) - I still enjoy the first film more, but this one is higher energy and gets crazy. I’m begging and pleading for a third movie.

• I’m Still Here (2024) - So far this is my Oscar frontrunner that probably won’t win.

Bye!

1. Enjoyed it quite a bit. I did mix it up with The Long Walk, but I’ll catch that one another day. I also have an audiobook of Pet Semetary that I started about six months ago and inexplicably never got through.

2. We’ve all been there girl

3. Let’s be clear, Paul is not a villain. He’s just some weird guy who thinks he can pull off an ascot but cannot. Anna was working with Nazis. Both are victims of poor writing doomed to be disliked by some random woman 50 years later.