The New 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' Trailer, or, 'Don't Get Bit by Serial Killers'

By Nate Parker | Film | August 2, 2021 |

By Nate Parker | Film | August 2, 2021 |

If my previous gushing about Eddie Brock and his parasite symbiote didn’t get the point across, Venom is one of my favorite comfort movies. If I’m in a bad mood or sick, I sit back, put on Venom, and fall asleep to the soothing sounds of our antihero using a police officer to beat other cops to death. It’s very zen. So I was already excited for Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Then Sony dropped this.

Have you ever sat at your desk desperately trying not to giggle as you watch a prison guard deepthroat an alien symbiote? It’s difficult to explain to your coworkers why you’re laughing without sounding like you’re watching pornography at work. But this is better than porn. Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is having a hard time living with a roommate who resides in his head and wants to eat people all the time. He makes the mistake of getting in arm’s reach of Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) during an interview and loses a chunk of his hand. Thus is born Carnage, pure evil and chaos, and now Venom’s scared shitless. It’s understandable; the Carnage symbiote is a class above his daddy. Though they inhabit the same physical space and influence one another’s thoughts, Venom and Eddie remain somewhat separate entities. Not so Kasady and Carnage; the former’s insanity and bloodlust make him the perfect vehicle, and the two bond in flesh and spirit on every level. Carnage is stronger, faster, capable of vastly more complex metamorphosis, and can even grow and shed weapons made of symbiote tissue.

I am entirely in on this movie. It looks like Sony is blending two classic Venom stories together; the origin of Carnage, and Eddie Brock’s struggle to find a food source that satisfies Venom without treating human bodies as Pez dispensers. Woody Harrelson is in full psycho mode, bringing back recollections of Mickey Knox. Kelly Marcel is one of the writers behind the original Venom screenplay and wrote this one as well, from a story conceived by Tom Hardy. This promises very good things, as does the continued emphasis on comedy. It looks like they’re leaning into the R-rating too, thank Christ. I love the original and the violence level is great, but generally pretty bloodless. If I’m watching a guy’s head get eaten like a Lindt chocolate truffle there better be some bodily fluids to go with it.

This is the kind of movie that demands a few hours off work, an edible, and a theater with recliners and a fully stocked bar. Venom: Let There Be Carnage hits theaters on Sept. 24, and I’ll be there.