Since it's set in the South, this horror flick will probably leave many audiences whining that it's shamelessly drawing added publicity from Hurricane Katrina. That's really too bad, since there are so many better things to whine about in Venom.
Essentially, it's I Know What You Did Last Summer On the Bayou, with an assortment of forgettable but hot young stars stalked by a generic psychopath. This time it's a voodoo-cursed tow-truck driver named Ray (Rick Cramer), who kills with a crowbar (because hooks, machetes, chainsaws and all of the other good weapons have already been taken by reputable villains). Surprisingly, the bulk of the film's violence takes place off-screen, making the film more like an old-fashioned slasher than an all-out gorefest, so be prepared for a lot of whiny teen angst to fill the running time, delivered without a single Southern accent, despite all these characters having supposedly grown up in a small Louisiana town.
Simple-minded horror fare like this can be effective with carefully built suspense and clever scares, but Ray's uninventive zombie makeup and painfully predictable slayings only succeed in creating tedium. Ray's whole mundane routine quickly boils down to stalk, kill, repeat.