V-V-VENOM!

VENOM (1981)
dirs: Piers Haggard, Tobe Hooper

V-V-VENOM!
Crazy #90, September 1982
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Kent Gamble

Not to be mistaken for the Spider-Man movie. British horror film involving snakes and a kidnapping. Philip (Lance Holcomb) is a boy whose hobby is snakes, his mother is going away and has asked the grandfather, Howard Anderson (Sterling Hayden), to watch after him. While she is gone, the maid Louise (Susan George) and her boyfriend Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) have decided to take the boy hostage and Louise has seduced the chauffer Dave (Oliver Reed) so he can help them with their plot.

Philip goes to the pet store to get a snake for his collection against the protests and the maid, because Philip has to be at home when Jacmel arrives. Philip goes anyway, but we find out his snake was mixed up with the deadly black mamba, which was to be delivered to the local institute, and the mix-up is discovered by Dr. Stowe (Sarah Miles).

The kidnapping plot goes awry when the black mamba snake bites Louise, taking her life before Dr. Stowe can arrive with the antidote. Dave accidentally shoots a cop. Howard used to be a hunter and can find the mamba snake and hunt it down, but the kidnappers don't want it to interfere with their plot.

The police and everyone outside assume Louise is still alive, and Jacmel uses these false pretenses to lure Dr. Stowe in and hold her hostage as well, and cuts off Louise's fingers to give to the police making them think they;re Dr. Stowe's fingers and that he means business.

The black mamba snake gets Jacmel just as the police shoot him so it's assumed they got both him and the snakes, but while the snake was in the house, it reproduced. So the film ends with a “The End?”-type ending.