ANTLERS, LAMB & LET THERE BE CARNAGE
This week, I watched three highly-anticipated genre films. The first, ANTLERS (trailer here), premiered at the American Cinematheque-sponsored Beyond Fest with director Scott Cooper and producer Guillermo del Toro in attendance. The second, LAMB (trailer here), had been long-awaited as the latest “elevated horror” work distributed by A24 and emerged from Cannes as a festival favorite. And the third was VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE (trailer here).
Now, if you saw the first VENOM movie and were bewildered by the clash of grim, self-serious VFX bloat and complete off-the-walls ridiculousness, I’ve got good news—the sequel goes all-in on the latter, with a surprisingly sweet twist. Writer Kelly Marcel and director Andy Serkis (yeah, that one) added a whole new spin on Eddie Brock’s relationship with the alien symbiote inhabiting his body. And well, these two comic book characters, crammed in their dingy SF apartment bickering over house rules and what’s for dinner, have found themselves in a straight-up rom com. They fight, they make up, they make pancakes. With Venom’s character essentially turning into Clayface from the “Harley Quinn” animated series, both he and Eddie form a new vulnerability, intimacy, and sense of self (and yes I can’t believe I’m still talking about VENOM 2 either). This film is equal parts tender and camp. Tom Hardy’s indecipherable accent? Camp. Michelle Williams’ heinous wig? Camp. The tentacles (oh, so many tentacles)? Camp…verging on pornographic. Oh yeah, and there’s Naomie Harris and Woody Harrelson doing a NATURAL BORN KILLERS THING too. I guess I am encouraging you to see this movie. And you know what? I’m okay with that.
—Alicia Devereaux, Development Assistant
