Venomous (2002)

After a strange series of attacks, a small-town doctor and his staff find that a military cover-up involving a deadly virus transmitted through venomous snake bites released by a terrorist attack and disturbed by seismic activity forcing them to come together to stop them.

This here was a decent if decidedly unimpressive offering. Among the few positives here is the fact that there are quite a few scenes with the snakes here that really plays up the advantage of using the real animals. The fact that the scenes involving them are quite fun, from the first scenes of them biting on the civilians and the outbreak that causes the different quick-shot attacks that are carried out in the houses around town which are quite nicely handled in instigating their need for the quarantine. There’s a great deal of these scenes that work throughout here due to the others carrying out the need for the real-sized snakes which has the nice lead-in to the different action scenes in the finale where there are all sorts of big fun to be had with the military ambush tactics and the big ambushes trying to get their plan under control. However, this is all that really works here since this one doesn’t really have a whole lot to really enjoy and has a ton of flaws. Among the biggest ones is the fact that there’s just not a whole lot the film can do with the rating featured here as it really neuters the possibilities for action within here. There’s not a whole lot of vicious or graphic kills throughout here and the most blood shown is in a series of test-tube vials so it really leaves a lot of chances of to the sidelines which makes it feel rather weak. There’s also the films’ incredibly weak and obvious low-budget tone here which comes off quite apparent in the final half but is still a big deal throughout here, giving this one the kind of weak-toned and out of control with how it carries out these elements. Along with a distinct lack of action and confined sets, the film’s biggest action scenes here are all stock footage scenes taken from other movies that includes several car chases taken to escape from the authorities and to later escape from the confined area and it containing action scenes and explosions taken from other films that really seems obvious with the change in audio and video quality during these scenes that highlights the pilfering. The film’s last flaw is the fact that the actions could’ve been avoided had the nonsensical cover-up never occurred as everything that happens from the outbreak of the virus to the town quarantine and the snakes getting loose is due to their cover-up of the tests and the snakes being there. These here really hold this down.

Rated PG-13: Violence, Language and scenes involving strong suggested child violence.