Comics
Glorious ‘Venom’ Concept Art Gives the Symbiote the Horror Look We Wanted!
Although it was never officially pegged as an R-rated adaptation, executives at Sony and even director Ruben Fleischer spoke as if Venom would be something in the vein of a John Carpenter film, citing his body horror The Thing as an example.
While the final design to make it to the big screen was awesome (see above), it’s fun to see what could have been. Concept designer Jared Krichevsky shared an early design he did for the Spider-Man spinoff and it’s nothing short of phenomenal.
What you see below is most definitely a more terrifying version of Venom, which would have bode well in an R-rated adaptation. Reminding me of Erik Larsen‘s evolution of Todd McFarlane‘s antihero, I’m hoping that maybe the design for Carnage, who will be the antagonist in Venom 2, will take a more sinister approach such as this. What do you think?
Here’s a design I did for Venom early in development. The movie was some good silly fun. #venom #tomhardy pic.twitter.com/GSaR52uTzM
— Jared Krichevsky (@Monstermash042) February 15, 2019
The supernatural world of Korean folk horror movie Exhuma grows larger with the arrival of prequel spinoff webtoon Maengjong this weekend, Variety reports today.
Naver Webtoon debuts Maengjong on May 30.
The series hails from Haemuri (Olgami) and will trace the high school origins of how shaman duo Hwarim and Bonggil, played by Kim Go-eun and Lee Do-hyun in the 2024 film, came together to face occultish threats.
The story is set to begin when “Hwarim, who has been concealing her identity following a childhood encounter with a snake spirit called Jin, crosses paths with Bonggil at their school.”
Variety notes that Exhuma director Jang Jae-hyun participated in the project’s early concept stage.
“We are presenting ‘Maengjong,’ a new series capturing the appeal of the horror-occult genre, ahead of the full summer season,” said Lee Jeong-geun, Naver Webtoon’s Korea webtoon content leader. “With the high school story of Hwarim and Bonggil, who left a strong impression in the film ‘Exhuma,’ enhanced by Haemuri’s characteristic tense direction, we expect it will be a welcome work for genre fans.”
“It is meaningful that the spin-off story of ‘Exhuma,’ loved by many audiences, expands by meeting the new grammar of webtoon,” said Lee Hyeon-jeong, managing director of the film business division at Showbox, which distributed the film. “We hope it will be a fresh experience for both film fans and webtoon readers.”
Exhuma was a breakout hit in 2024, becoming the first Korean occult film to surpass 10 million ticket buyers and the country’s highest-grossing film of the year. I wrote in my review that “the intricately woven Exhuma delivers one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror so far.”
The bond between Hwarim and Bonggil was one of the film’s highlights, making this prequel webtoon a must for fans.
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