Horror Double Feature: Roar & Venom

In today’s Shocktober Double Feature, we will be rattled by lions and tigers and jaguars, Tippi Hedren, the deadly black mamba, and Klaus Kinski! It’s Roar and Venom!

ROAR (1981)

It turns out that birds aren’t the only critters to have given actress Tippi Hedren a rough time on screen! In Roar (1981), a film that Tippi and her then-husband Noel Marshall – along with sons John and Jerry and daughter Melanie Griffith – star – in (Tippi and Noel also wrote, produced and directed), all manner of wild animals turn up to give the actress some fairly tense moments. In this virtually plotless film, a mother and her three kids go to Africa to visit their scientist husband/father after an absence of three years. Dad’s not at home when they arrive, but around 30 large cats – lions, tigers, jaguars, etc. – are, and proceed to chase the family all around the abode. These animals are never shown in a bad light, however; this is very much a pro-conservation film that espouses all wildlife causes. That is all well and good, but the film’s primary appeal, it must be said, is the Marshalls’ fearless interaction with the big cats. Seeing Noel dive into a group of fighting lions and come out bloodied but happily beaming is really quite remarkable. Tippi reveals herself to be quite an extraordinary stuntwoman, too; just watch her get tossed about by an elephant, fall off a tipping ladder into a pond, climb down a waterwheel, and roll around with the lions! We are told at the picture’s beginning that no animals were harmed during its (11-year!) filming; I for one could use a further reassurance about the movie’s humans! Siegfried & Roy, eat your hearts out; no lion tamer act will ever seem impressive after one sees what Noel and family do during the course of this film! “How did they ever make this thing?” is the question that springs to mind constantly during a viewing of Roar; the human-animal interactions shown are like nothing you have ever seen. In that, it is a completely sui generis experience, and, despite a few genuinely scary moments, perfectly suitable for watching with the kiddies. Very highly recommended.

VENOM (1982)

A movie about a kidnapping? Cool. A movie about a kidnapping that degenerates into a hostage crisis? Even better! But howzabout a movie about the kidnapping of a seriously asthmatic kid, that turns into a hostage crisis, while the victims and criminals besieged by the law in a London town house are threatened by an escaped black mamba snake, the world’s swiftest and most deadly? What could be better than that? Well, as the 1982 British thriller Venom demonstrates, perhaps an all-star group of performers to put this fun-sounding conceit over! Thus, we have an absolutely sterling cast here, consisting, in part, of, uh, Sterling Hayden as the asthmatic boy’s supercool grandfather, Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed as the kidnappers (a terrific pair of bad guys, with Oliver’s ultimate fate in the film giving new meaning to the old expression “trouser snake”), Sarah Miles as a toxicologist, Nicol Williamson as the police commander in charge of the crisis, and Michael Gough (wasted in a teensy role) as a snake expert. The picture has been directed for maximum suspense by Piers Haggard, with much of that suspense naturally arising from the fact that the viewer can never predict where or when that deadly mamba will raise its ugly head. Any opened drawer, cabinet or door in the picture can serve as a most lethal jack-in-the-box of sorts, and this knowledge keeps us primed and nervous throughout. With the exception of that final ambiguous shot of a snake in the town house’s ductwork (I still can’t figure out the meaning of that!), I found this film to be thoroughly satisfying and entertaining. And the further good news is that the picture has been given a great-looking treatment by the always dependable folks at Blue Underground. Thanks again, guys!

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Devil worship! British beatniks! Blood addiction! The Night of the Living Dead’s Duane Jones! It’s Devils of Darkness and Ganja & Hess, in the Shocktober Double Feature #18…