Embrace your inner anti-hero.
Not currently showing on the local cinema circuit.
| Cast |
Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed, Ron Cephas Jones, Michelle Lee |
| Director |
Ruben Fleischer |
| Screenplay | Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, Kelly Marcel, Will Beall, based on the Marvel comics by Todd McFarlane, David Michelinie |
| Music | Ludwig Göransson |
| Cinematography | Matthew Libatique |
| Sound formats | Dolby Atmos |
| Made in | 2018 |
| Produced by | Columbia Pictures Corporation, Marvel Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment |
Official Site | IMDB page | ScreenIt Report | CommonSenseMedia Report
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| Genre | Action horror thriller. |
| Language | The film contains fairly frequent moderate impact instances of crude language within the context of swearing, insults and derogatory contexts, and to express emotions like frustration, exasperation and shock. |
| Nudity | None |
| Sex | None |
| Violence | There are frequent scenes of violence, intertwined with horror and having a strong cumulative impact, accentuated by cinematic format and cinematographic techniques. Characters perform and suffer acts resulting in physical and psychological harm. |
| Prejudice | None |
| Blasphemy | None |
| Drug abuse | None |
| Comments | Contains scenes of horror. The action horror science fiction film “Venom” explores themes of supernatural powers, rivalry, unethical scientific experimentation, imminent alien invasion, threats to humanity, survival, investigations, relationships, contamination, possession and infection by alien organisms, and intrapersonal conflict between good and bad aspects within oneself. Themes dealing with scientific experimentation, unethical practices, and infection and possession by alien organisms presented in a science fiction context, are complex and mature and may be confusing to cognitively immature viewers. Themes revolving around alien infections which present as possessions, threats by the ruthless Drake to all of humanity, and uncontrolled possessions by aggressive murderous aliens, are laced with dark, emotional undertones and a sustained sense of psychological threat and menace, as illustrated by Eddies distress revealed in his confession to Annie that he is frightened and does not understand what is happening to him. The sense of threat and menace is accentuated by cinematic format (including the dark cinema and enhanced audio-visual effects) in combination with cinematographic techniques such as low frequency sound, dark lighting, dramatic music and sudden loud noises. Themes and the presentation are therefore likely to be confusing, disturbing, distressing, upsetting and potentially psychologically harmful to cognitively and emotionally immature children under 16 years, who may even suffer from after-effects like nightmares. The sustained violence in the presentation of themes may also result in moral harm through desensitisation to violence and the potential effects thereof to morally immature viewers under 16 years who are highly susceptible to influences by the media, especially by sympathetic characters like Eddie (as enabled by Venom to resort to violent acts to achieve their goals). Children under 16 years may not yet have the cognitive ability to comprehend and take into account comedic elements (in the form of dark, sardonic humour), and the unrealistic scenario involving alien infestation and possession while assimilating messages conveyed by the film. |
| These details are supplied by the FPB. If you have a problem with any of the above, please take it up directly with the FPB. Read the Classification Guidelines. | |
Sex / Nudity |
Violence |
Blood / Gore / Gross |
| Guns / Weapons |
Profanity |
Alcohol / Drugs |
Smoking |
Disrespectful / Bad Attitude |
Imitative Behaviour |
| Frightening / Tense Scenes |
Jump Scenes |
Tense Family Scenes |
| Music (Scary/Tense) |
Music (Inappropriate) |
Topics to talk about |
| Suggested age limit 14 + |
Positive messages |
Positive role models |
| Violence |
Sex |
Language |
Consumerism |
Drinking, drugs, smoking |
| Scale (Max) | 20 |  |
What the Critics say | ||
| Cape Argus / The Star Todd McCarthy  Nothing good in this archvillain film. | 5 |  |
| 24.com Ilan Preskovsky It’s not simply bad in the way that this century’s worst superhero films have been; it’s bad in the sense that it’s hard to believe that it was ever made in the first place. | 2 | |
| ScreenIt Jim Judy As it stands, it has its moments, but without enough goofy venom to inject into viewers’ funny bones, only time will tell whether this offering will be poisonous to comic book movie fans and thus make them sick enough not to come back for more. | 8 |  |
| Metacritic.com 46 critics | 7 | |
| Rottentomatoes critics 249 critics | 9 | |
| Rottentomatoes tomatometer Tomatometer Venom’s first standalone movie turns out to be like the comics character in all the wrong ways - chaotic, noisy, and in desperate need of a stronger attachment to Spider-Man. | 6 | |
| CommonSenseMedia Jeffrey M. Anderson Violent, uninspired comic-book tale misses the mark. | 5 | |
What the People say | ||
| Metacritic.com users 775 users | 13 |  |
| Rottentomatoes users 28033 users | 18 |  |
| IMDB 84086 Netizens | 14 | |
| The Movie DB Community | 13 | |
Average .. 45% | 9 | |