(1981)
Dir - Piers Haggard
Overall: MEH
Though director Piers Haggard did not have the most prolific career as far as theatrical releases went, he did make the exceptional The Blood on Satan's Claw and joined by both Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed here, one would logically assume that the results would be much better. It is a bummer then that Venom does not play to its own strengths. Haggard was brought in late in the game with none other than Tobe Hooper taking a crack at the material first, (which for whatever reason was abandoned at some point), and apparently it was a rushed effort in the end. Surprising to absolutely no one, Kinski and Reed practically, (or probably), came to blows during the entire shooting schedule, both actors having the utmost reputation of being impossible lunatics on most film sets let alone ones where they were forced to shoot scenes together. Some of this tension comes through on screen and Kinski is as menacing and creepy as Reed is sweaty and cartoonishly intense. So essentially, both actors do what they always do. The one-note story is a dud though and feels stretched throughout its entire running time so despite the potential on and behind the screen, Venom is just a sub-par thriller/animal horror outing at best.
(1985)
Dir - Tobe Hooper
Overall: MEH
Indulging himself with a twenty-five million dollar budget which he would never have again, Tobe Hooper's lone British production Lifeforce is as absurd on paper as it is on screen. Aliens, vampires, zombies, boobs, yelling, explosions, and Patrick Stewart all make up a bonafide slopstacle course that flies more and more off the rails as it goes on. Scored by none other than Henry Mancini, co-scripted by none other than Dan O'Bannon, and featuring the main guy behind Star Wars John Dykstra handling the special effects, this would be Hooper's direct follow-up to the mega successful Poltergeist, hence the generous budget, A-list behind the scenes talent, and Cannon Films giving him free reign to go as overboard as he liked. Lifeforce is essentially a remake of Hammer's Quartermass films, no doubt deliberately so as Hooper pays loving homage to the famous British series. Outside of an embarrassing toy model London set and some hilariously unconvincing dummies, the effects are solid from the time period, with spaceships, swirly blue lights, and blood-and-guts-drained, animatronic humanoids straight out of Return of the Living Dead all looking rather excellent. The plot, dialog, and the performances are as ham-fisted as they get and there is so much yelling, blaring music, fire, and chaos in the last act that you are bound to start laughing at how many cliches are shamelessly piled on top of one another to overload your senses.
(1988)
Dir - Ken Russell
Overall: MEH
Wildly fusing tones, Ken Russell's The Lair of the White Worm is a typically strange production from the typically strange filmmaker. An adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel of the same way in only the loosest sense, the movie jumps from black comedy to horror parody to student avant-garde film to a random hoedown all with some of the least convincing special effects known to man. While the snake-like vampire make-up is actually rather good, (and kind of creepy to boot), frantically cut, spontaneous hallucination sequences over chroma key green screens look hilariously awful. They also jive curiously with the droll pace of the rest of the film which lingers on several long takes that often fail to go anywhere. Russell can still pack his movies with bizarre flare, this time including giant horned dildos that snake cultists wear for a reason and Amanda Donohoe's Lady Silvia Marsh who does any number of strange things like chilling in a wicker basket, (because snakes), spitting green venom on a crucifix, (because blasphemous snakes?), cutting off teenage boy's wangs while bathing them, or just being naked and blue sometimes without shaving her armpits. The script which was also penned by Russell is not the tightest out there, with characters going off on their own for curious periods and reaching rather far fetched, (be they correct), conclusions a little too casually. The flimsy structure in some ways enhances the weirdness, but it is still too poorly made in too many areas to really applause how wacky it all is.
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