MVD Entertainment

Piers Haggard's "Venom" 4K UHD - Klaus Kinski, Susan George, Oliver Reed, Nicol Williamson, Sarah Miles, Sterling Hayden @blunderground US: link.amazon/B012jZs84 CAN: link.amazon/B0cWozhtC BONUS CAPTURES: patreon.com/dvdbeaver/posts/… OUR COMPARISON: dvdbeaver.com/subsite/film3/… Venom is a lean, nasty little hostage thriller with an improbable marquee - and a gift for anyone who loves watching larger-than-life actors circle each other in tight quarters. The deadly mamba strikes almost exclusively at the guilty, lending an old-fashioned sense of justice beneath the exploitation trappings. Susan George (Straw Dogs, Sudden Terror, Tintorera, Fright, Die Screaming Marianne, Enter the Ninja, The Strange Affair, The Sorcerers, Mandingo, Up the Junction, Jack the Ripper) is the film's secret weapon as Louise, the sly, calculating maid who is both bait and brains of the inside job - and her encounter with the mamba is the film's most skin-crawling set-piece. Oliver Reed (The System, Revolver, The Assassination Bureau, The Curse of the Werewolf, Crossed Swords, The Party's Over, Ten Little Indians, Z.P.G., The Triple Echo, Dante's Inferno, The Brigand of Kandahar, The Devils, Hired to Kill, The Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday, These Are the Damned, The Debussy Film, The Scarlet Blade, Women in Love, Tommy, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Sword of Sherwood Forest, The Hunting Party, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Pirates of Blood River, Burnt Offerings, The Brood, Paranoiac, Farewell, My Lovely, Take a Girl Like You) and Klaus Kinski (The Great Silence, Double Face, Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Haine, Creature with the Blue Hand, Woyzeck, Cobra Verde, Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo, Crawlspace, Pleasure Girls, Bang! Bang! You're Dead!, A Bullet for the General, For a Few Dollars More, The Cats, Grand Slam, Slaughter Hotel, Madame Claude, The Counterfeit Traitor, Count Dracula) famously loathed each other, and that genuine ill will crackles in every exchange between the volatile chauffeur and the contemptuous terrorist. Sterling Hayden (The Killing, The Asphalt Jungle, Naked Alibi, Terror in a Texas Town, Flat Top, 5 Steps to Danger, Denver and Rio Grande, The Outsider, Dr. Strangelove, Crime of Passion, The Long Goodbye) lends a craggy dignity as the grandfather, Nicol Williamson (The Reckoning, The Human Factor, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The Wilby Conspiracy, Excalibur, Black Widow) brings a clipped, chess-player calm to the siege outside, and Sarah Miles (Ryan's Daughter, The Hireling, Hope and Glory, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, The Servant, She Played with Fire, Loving Walter) is the toxicologist pulled into the nightmare. Piers Haggard (Quatermass, The Blood on Satan's Claw) stepped in for Tobe Hooper at short notice and delivered a taut, efficient thriller, beautifully lensed by Gilbert Taylor (The Bedroom Window, Dracula, The Omen, Frenzy, A Day at the Beach, Cul-de-sac, Repulsion, A Hard Day's Night, Dr. Strangelove, Yield to the Night, The Dam Busters, Seven Days to Noon, The Outsider) and scored by Michael Kamen (The Dead Zone, Mona Lisa, Polyester, Road House, Company Business, Event Horizon, Brazil). Blue Underground's 4K UHD is a substantial upgrade - a new 4K restoration from the interpositive with restored grain, re-timed color, deeper contrast, a new Atmos mix, a second commentary and four new interviews. Even the included Blu-ray is a significant improvement over the decade-old release. Certainly recommended to the right crowd.