Venom (1981)

Directors: Piers Haggard, Tobe Hooper

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, Nicol Williamson, Susan George

Terrorists in the process of kidnapping a child get trapped in a house with an extremely deadly snake.

Young Philip Hopkins keeps exotic pets. When he orders a harmless house snake but receives a venomous Black Mamba by mistake, all hell is about to break loose. Terrorists who seize control of the house with the help of the maid, are up against more than they bargained for.

Susan George stars as the maid, Louise, and Oliver Reed is the family chauffeur Dave. Together with Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) they plan to take Philip hostage for ransom of $1 million. With Philip’s parents away on business and only his grandfather home, the trio of criminals pull off their plan. But their plan goes horribly wrong when they find themselves up against the Black Mamba.

Following up on the matter of the wrong snake the boy received, a policeman is fatally wounded by Dave. Now, Commander William Bulloch must negotiate with Jacmel to ensure the boy’s safety, and calls in toxicologist Dr Marion Stowe (Sarah Miles) to be on standby with an anti-venom.

I enjoyed the way the film respected every single character – even the ones in very small roles. I also enjoyed Commander William, who was a rather nice character. Apart from the horror element, the film also serves as a hostage drama.

There are moments here when you’re probably going to raise your feet off the floor onto the couch! Apparently a real black mamba was used for the film. Nowadays, it would have been a CGI snake. I really enjoyed this film, and the realism thanks to the real snake.

Would I watch it again? Yes.

Prey (2024)

Director: Mukunda Michael Dewil

Starring: Ryan Phillippe, Emile Hirsch, Mohamed Hakeemshady, Emile Hirsch

A young couple is compelled to leave their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang. After crashing their aircraft they must battle man and beast for their lives.

Oh, no, not ANOTHER lion movie called ‘Prey’! We had ‘Prey’ in 2007, ‘Prooi’ in 2016 (Prooi being dutch for Prey), and now again! Then there was the 2022 ‘Predator’ prequel also called ‘Prey’. All too confusing…

The film’s alternate title is ‘Kalahari’, and now it sounds all too much like 1965’s ‘Sands of the Kalahari’, which is about a small plane flying to Johannesburg crashing in the Kalahari. Only, in that movie there are baboons and no lions. ‘Prey’ sees a private plane (flying to Johannesburg) carrying a handful of passengers crash landing in the Kalahari, and the survivors are being hunted by lions – blah-blah-blah.

‘Prey’ (aka Kalahari) is as B as a B-movie gets. Very little was explained about why the handful of passengers had to make use of the private plane and the characters were bland and one-dimensional. As a result I didn’t root for any of them. In short, I simply didn’t care about any of the characters. What the hell is Ryan Phillippe doing in a film like this?? Someone get the man a new agent!!

If you were hoping to see lion attacks here, forget it; there are none. There are lions, yes, and there are attacks, yes, but nothing is shown on screen!! The attacks are pretty much left to the viewer’s imagination. Now, this is as cheap as it gets. I mean, honestly, this film is from the bottom of the cheap barrel!! The plain wreck looked like a cardboard cut-out!!!! I’m not joking, it literally looked like a thing that was made out of cardboard with windows being painted on it!! Give me a moment while I compose myself and try to stop laughing…!!!!

Why on earth did Green Light Pictures greenlit this?? It’s a horrible script, and even worse in its execution. Every attempt at adding emotional depth – or horror for that matter – failed miserably. This is as forgettable as they come. If you’re into lion movies, ‘The Ghost and the Darkness’ is still the king of them all! 2022’s ‘Beast’ starring Idris Elba was by no means a good lion movie, but it was far superior to ‘Prey’. In fact, compared to ‘Prey’, ‘Beast’ is a masterpiece in film making!!! The best thing about ‘Prey’ is its poster!! Pffff!!!!

Would I watch it again? Not even to make fun of, no…

The Tiger’s Apprentice (2024)

Directors: Raman Hui, Yong Duk Jhun, Paul Watling

Tom Lee, a Chinese-American boy, after the death of his grandmother, has to be apprenticed to the talking tiger Mr. Hu and learn ancient magic to become the new guardian of an ancient phoenix.

Tom is being bullied at school for being a freak. From the beginning it is clear he is no ordinary teenager. Off course, there was the opening of his grandmother fighting fantastical creatures, so yeah, it was pretty obvious.

And then one day Hu turns up at his Grandmother’s, and soon after all hell breaks loose as they are being attacked by the same creatures we saw in the opening. Tom’s grandmother is once again fighting off the creatures with all she’s got, while Hu turns into a tiger.

Turns out Loo, the main antagonist, is after a Phoenix the grandmother wears around her neck. When the grandmother gave the Phoenix to Tom to guard and protect, I couldn’t understand why she believed him to be capable of the task, especially since he had no knowledge of the stone or his past before this task was bestowed upon him.

Apparently the Phoenix was used to create humanity, and now Loo wants it to destroy humanity. Nothing is told of the origins of the Phoenix and the story itself wasn’t all that well explained or justified. Loo came across as a villain purely for the sake of being a villain. I also didn’t find Tom all too believable as the protagonist. Hu, on the other hand, would have been a far better prospect to protect the Phoenix. Only, I found him inconsistent. At times he was a great fighter, and at times he wasn’t. He also seemed to randomly shapeshift into a tiger, for whatever reason. It made me wonder whether he was actually able to control his abilities.

We meet some of the other family members, who are all mystical or magical – dare I say – creatures, each with their own abilities. Together they fight the war against Loo and her army of creatures.

‘The Tiger’s Apprentice’ is like an animated film on steroids. I mean this film bombards the viewer with so much going on at once that it was hard to follow the action. I found it overdone. Being an animated film, the intended demographic is kids no doubt, but I’m just wondering if kids will be able to understand this story?

This is a beautifully animated movie and worth seeing, but I doubt very much I will bother watching it again.