Editorials
Let There Be Carnage and Dancing: Ranking All 3 ‘Venom’ Movies
Corporate interests will always get in the way of artists trying to tell a good story, and that’s partly why I think comic-books are so damn magical. Even in a medium that’s mostly controlled by a handful of giant companies with strict rules about their intellectual property, you can still see miraculous bursts of creativity even in the most unabashedly cynical products.
For example, there’s the fan-favorite Venom. Think of how many people were involved in the process of turning an alternate costume for Spider-Man (the result of a contest meant to make the character appeal to a broader audience) into a monstrous supervillain, only to then re-imagine the character as a reformed hero once the marketing folks realized that he was nearly as popular as Spidey himself. No single person planned for it to turn out this way, but each artist tried to nudge the idea in a fun direction, and now kids are out there wearing Venom masks for Halloween.
This same messy form of collaborative art can also be observed in Blockbuster filmmaking – and that’s exactly why I’ve managed to enjoy all three Venom films in spite of the franchise’s conceptual flaws. Even at their worst, these flicks have always had the same spirit as the goofy ’90s comics that they’re trying to emulate, and you can always tell that most of the people working on them are trying to gently nudge things in the right direction.
I’m still not entirely sure if any of these are traditionally “good” movies, but I like ‘em just the same. And with Venom: The Last Dance finally hitting theaters and presenting us with a thrilling conclusion to this deeply odd run of monstrous super-hero flicks, I think it’s about time to rank and compare all three of them.
Naturally, this ranking will be based on personal opinion, but don’t forget to comment below with your own take on this controversial franchise. And while we’ll only be ranking the solo trilogy of Venom movies (that means no Spider-Man 3 or even that memorable Truth in Journalism fan-film directed by Joe Lynch), readers are still welcome to discuss other adaptations.
Now, onto the ranking…
3. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
I don’t think even Sony was expecting their Spidey-less Spider-Man movie to be as big of a success as it was, but you have to commend Ruben Fleischer for thinking about the future when he cast Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady for that post-credits zinger in the original Venom. After all, the lack of a compelling villain was one of the biggest complaints directed towards the first flick, so it stands to reason that a sequel featuring the character’s psychotic rival would be a guaranteed blast, right?
Well, sort of.
Instead of learning from their mistakes, Sony doubled down on censorship and executive meddling when the time came to make what should have been a superior sequel. Let There be Carnage is still an enjoyable movie, but it’s also a confused mishandling of Andy Serkis’ directorial talents that simultaneously feels undercooked and overstuffed.
While I appreciate the manic energy that Harrelson brings to the table (with the film benefiting greatly from a villain that is almost as entertaining to watch as our lead), the character’s adaptational downgrade coupled with the script’s rehashing of the best parts of the first one make this the most disappointing entry despite a few flashes of brilliance.
However, as someone who actually owns a copy of the comic-book where Carnage first surfs the web using the symbiote – I was honestly quite happy to see a comic-book movie that isn’t ashamed to be as silly as its over-the-top source material.
2. Venom: The Last Dance (2024)
Written and directed by the lady who helped glue this messy franchise into a coherent trilogy in the first place (with frequent Tom Hardy collaborator Kelly Marcel having previously worked as a screenwriter on both Venom and Let There be Carnage), The Last Dance mostly makes up for its bizarre lack of comic-book action and accuracy with some genuine heart and a surprisingly consistent tone.
In fact, the heartfelt interactions between Eddie and the Symbiote feel so earnest here that you often forget that the film doesn’t actually contain any of the flashy fight scenes or winks to the source material that folks have come to associate with the genre – though it still features plenty of fun monster chases and Area 51 shenanigans.
While I agree with the filmmakers’ insistence that Knull is too powerful of a villain for Venom to face on his own, the decision to have his envoys be faceless alien creatures (which suffer from the same design pitfalls that have plagued most monster movies released since Cloverfield) are what keep this threequel from being a legitimately thrilling picture, especially when you remember that Sony will almost certainly bring Venom back for a crossover if their dealings with Disney allow it.
Additionally, the film suffers from a conspicuous lack of Michelle Williams, as the ghost of Brock’s failed marriage (and the fact that his ex really was better off without him) was a huge part of what made the other films so endearing.
Even so, the bizarre symbiosis of an extraterrestrial creature feature with an introspective road trip is what really makes The Last Dance a better time than Let There be Carnage. You can tell that Marcel’s personal vision made it onto the screen even if it wasn’t exactly the vision that fans were hoping for. That’s why I appreciate this as the only Venom film that doesn’t feel like it required corporate-mandated reshoots and late nights in the editing-room in order to meet its release window.
We even get to see Mrs. Chen and Venom dance along to Abba – how can anyone hate this movie?
1. Venom (2018)
An ill-advised production that seemed doomed to fail, the original Venom was the one entry with the most problems stacked against it. And yet, this film somehow ended up being the most chaotically entertaining feature of the bunch.
The film actually went through numerous rewrites and iterations before unfortunately being greenlit after Sony reached their complicated deal with Disney that allowed Spider-Man to finally show up in the MCU while also preventing him from taking part in spin-offs.
Despite an army of lawyers advising what could and couldn’t be included in the film, what we ended up with was much more entertaining than it had any right to be. Yes, the movie was clearly re-edited to hell (mostly due to some unfortunate censorship meant to reduce the flick’s R rating to a more profitable PG-13) while also suffering from a shaky final act with a forgettable villain, but that just makes the passion behind the good parts of the experience that much more impressive.
Even with a script that feels like it was locked in a drawer for 15 years, Venom still miraculously captures the essence of its title character without even being allowed to depict his iconic spider logo. Eddie and the symbiote’s dialogue is lifted almost verbatim from the Lethal Protector comics (even if their arc is less impactful due to the lack of Supervillain baggage), and there’s a certain glossy style here that the other films weren’t able to replicate.
Of course, the main attraction here is watching Tom Hardy perform his dual role as if he were in a live-action Looney Tunes adaptation, with the actor’s under-appreciated comedic talents being responsible for most of the flick’s entertainment factor. The sequels might also benefit from this, but you can tell that Hardy really went all-in for this first movie.
It may not be high art, but I honestly enjoy this oddball flick more than most of the formulaic super-hero flicks that tend to garner good reviews.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Editorials
Not Another ‘Scary Movie’: Revisiting Forgotten Parody ‘Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th’
After Scream (1996) made a killing at the box office, as well as won over critics and audiences, a lot of folks in the movie biz thought they could do the same thing (and yield similar results). That thing, of course, being a slasher. Most of these opportunists wound up being pretty straightforward; they were low on humor or commentary. Yet others, like Scary Movie (2000), saw the potential for spoofing Scream, and acted on that impulse with both haste and excitement.
A few months after the Wayans’ comedy first hit theaters, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th landed on the USA Network, as part of the channel’s “Shriek Week” programming. That straight-to-cable (then home video) destination is possibly why many people still don’t know about this one. Or they simply chose to forget. Whatever the reason, only one of these two horror parodies came out on top—and it’s certainly not the movie where Coolio channeled Prince, and Tom Arnold saved the day.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th previously went by the name of I Know What You Screamed Last Semester. That Trimark acquisition then settled on a wordier title, just so it could avoid the litigious wrath of Miramax Films. Folks may or may not remember that Columbia Pictures was sued over the “implied connection” between I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream. So, yeah, there was no way that this competing Scream parody wasn’t going to be kept on a tight rein.
A Heavy Reliance on Late ’90s TV References
Simon Rex, Julie Benz, Majandra Delfino, Harley Cross, Danny Strong, Tom Arnold and Tiffani-Amber Thiesen in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Naturally, there would be similarities between Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th and Scary Movie—their scripts are built on the backs of the same two movies. It goes without saying that the other big slasher of the 1990s, I Know What You Did Last Summer, was as much of a target as Scream. However,the film pads itself with more TV references than Scary Movie did.
Half the cast coming off of (and in some cases, returning to) a WB show could be a reason why. Dawson’s Creek is particularly zeroed in on, based on how there’s a central character named “Dawson Deery“, and how the teen drama’s teacher-student affair plotline is satirized to the nth degree. As if there weren’t enough nods to television, Baywatch, VH1’s Pop Up Video, and even those cheesy Mentos commercials all serve as joke prompts.
Shriek director John Blanchard and writers Sue Bailey and Joe Nelms all hailed from television, so it’s understandable that they would stick close to home. The movie’s humor in general makes more sense, in light of learning that Blanchard worked on SCTV, Kids in the Hall, and MADtv. The writers, on the other hand, were each fairly green, with Bailey being the most experienced of the two; she wrote and produced the game show BattleBots. Nevertheless, they, plus Blanchard, churned out a passable, joke-a-minute movie. The whole thing is staggeringly of its time, but no one here was aiming for longevity.
Having seen enough of these kinds of movies, we know to expect jokes of the low-hanging fruit variety. That’s the parody’s whole prime directive. From the characters having names like “Screw Frombehind” and “Doughy Primesuspect”, to stereotyping that feels taboo nowadays, this is a movie from a different era of comedy. Its coarse, corny, and unapologetic sense of humor won’t sit well with everyone in these more enlightened times. In which case, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th can be treated as a time capsule.
Does Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th Humor Still Hold Up Today?
“You may already be a victim”—Someone receives a most peculiar threatening piece of mail in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Although Shriek doesn’t live up to its own claims of being so funny that you’ll die of laughter, its bawdier parts could still lead to some nervous laughter. For instance, after this movie’s parallel to Drew Barrymore’s Scream character is done in—not by the killer but by a bug zapper—the movie throws a newspaper next to the victim’s fresh corpse. The headline? “Popular slut killed! Football team mourns”.
We then move on to the wacky and inappropriate goings-on at Bulimia Falls High School, home of the Hurlers. At this nexus of constant absurdity, indecency, and surrealism, students are seen fornicating on the lawn, cheerleading squad applicants are advised to be comfortable with partial nudity, and terrorists openly prepare for an anthrax attack. It can be a tad jarring to watch, especially if you didn’t grow up witnessing this style of comedy firsthand. Hell, even if you did, you may still have a “what the hell were they thinking?” reaction.
It’s not just the aggressively edgy humor here that can make you chuckle—the slapstick, the sight gags, and the ribaldry all have a decent chance of landing. The movie’s own villain, whose hockey mask was instantly transformed into a crudely Ghostface-esque one after coming in contact with an open flame, commits more cheap laughs than kills. His and his victims’ chase sequences, most of which are cartoonish in nature, left this writer grinning. The Scooby-Doo fan in me also totally ate up that clever unmasking joke.
Final Thoughts on This Forgotten Horror Parody
Shriek If You Know What Did Last Friday the 13th
Now, the jury is still out on whether these comedies are to blame for the death of the first slasher revival. There is more to consider than some parodies. At the very least, the likes of Scary Movie didn’t exactly encourage big studios to put their money on a trend that was being derided to death (and not as profitable as the spoofs). These sorts of movies also felt unnecessary at the time, given how their principal inspiration is already a deconstruction of the genre. But like anything else that quickly becomes popular, mockery is unavoidable.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is indeed a movie nobody asked for, much less needed. As a sample of pre-millennium humor and cultural attitudes, it’s not always precise. But as I’ve laid out, your mileage may vary. Horror parodies typically don’t have the best track record, so managing one’s own expectations here is recommended.
Upon rewatching, I for one laughed a bit more than I did back then. Only this time, I responded to the jokes that my younger self didn’t notice or find all that amusing. So it just goes to show that the movies don’t change—we do.
Harley Cross and Majandra Delfino must unmask the killer a number of times in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th before learning their true identity.
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