FILM · 1981 · UK
Venom
36 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (36)
- #001
Piers Haggard, who took over the production at short notice, later said he was the best person on the set of Venom, that this reflected the hostility between stars Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski, who hated each other during filming, and that Reed constantly provoked and pranked Kinski until he lost his temper.
- #002
Lead actress Sarah Miles began to lose patience with lead actor Klaus Kinski during filming. She tried to encourage both Oliver Reed and Nicol Williamson to stand up to Kinski and make the atmosphere more relaxed, but both refused. Eventually Miles encountered Kinski as she passed him on the stairs and told him what she thought of him, giving him some idea of her feelings. For the rest of the shoot, Kinski greeted Miles with a "good morning" every day.
- #003
Tobe Hooper was initially committed to directing the production but left over "creative differences" before principal photography was completed. Original cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond likewise quit after ten days of shooting, also citing "creative differences."
- #004
In the DVD audio commentary, Piers Haggard stated that after Tobe Hooper left the production roughly nine days into principal photography, all footage directed by Tobe Hooper was removed from the finished cut, including stylistic choices involving costumes and lighting.
- #005
After Tobe Hooper's departure, Piers Haggard took over the production. At a party celebrating the film's release at Elaine's Restaurant in Manhattan, Klaus Kinski described how he, the rest of the cast and the crew had come together to have Haggard replace Tobe Hooper a few weeks into filming.
- #006
The production was the third and final on-screen appearance shared by Oliver Reed and Susan George, following the Peter Collinson-directed 1977 NBC television special US Against the World (1977) and the 1978 hostage thriller Tomorrow Never Comes (1978).
- #007
Michael Gough played the reptile expert David Ball. The character was named after David Ball, the London Zoo reptile supervisor who handled the black mamba during the production and received an on-screen thank-you.
- #008
During the film's promotional campaigns, studio publicity materials stated that antivenom serum for a black mamba bite has an effectiveness rate of only fifty percent in affected victims.
- #009
Klaus Kinski had a difficult time during the production, leaving the set on several occasions because of creative differences and disagreements with crew members.
- #010
The first promotional posters for Venom were printed during the initial principal photography, before original director Tobe Hooper's departure, and retained his directing credit in the promotional materials.
- #011
The film was adapted from South African-born author Alan Scholefield's 1977 novel of the same name and was released in UK cinemas in January 1982, roughly five years later.
- #012
Nicol Williamson was regarded as a difficult English actor, but ironically, according to the director, he was the friendliest and most helpful actor on the set of this film. He said Sterling Hayden was very quiet and mostly kept to himself.
- #013
Susan George's character is regarded as a "Janet Leigh character," a reference to Leigh's Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960): someone who appears to be the main star (or one of the main stars) and dies unexpectedly early in the film, allowing the others to take over and deal with the sudden plot shift.
- #014
Although director Tobe Hooper was replaced early in the production, three actors from the film later worked with Tobe Hooper on Lifeforce (1985), among them John Forbes-Robertson, Peter Porteous and Nicholas Donnelly.
- #015
Venom was the last feature film for Rita Webb, who died in August 1982, as well as for Arnold Diamond, who died in March 1981, and Sterling Hayden, who died in March 1985.
- #016
Oliver Reed also starred in another deadly-snake film, Spasms (1983), shot the same year as Venom (1981) but not released for another two years because of a deeply troubled production and a bankrupt effects studio. Coincidentally, Spasms (1983) also starred Miguel Fernandes, who played the older brother of the film's child star Lance Holcomb in Ghost Story (1981).
- #017
Tobe Hooper was initially attached to direct but left over "creative differences" and was replaced by Piers Haggard. Haggard was brought in as a replacement director at the eleventh hour, after the cast and crew had assembled. Although he complained that he was not allowed to make changes to the script (which would have improved the narrative flow), his biggest problem was trying to keep the peace among feuding actors, especially Klaus Kinski and Oliver Reed, who visibly hated each other. This is quite evident on screen, which is one reason Venom may be more enjoyable to watch with Haggard's DVD commentary track. After all, who wouldn't want to hear how Reed tried to upstage Klaus Kinski in their scenes together, which often drove Kinski into a murderous rage?
- #018
Venom was written by Robert Carrington and was the last film screenplay he produced in a career that also included Wait Until Dark (1967) and Fear Is the Key (1972).
- #019
A year after Alan Scholefield's novel Venom was published in 1977, "The Snake," written by Morton Freedgood under the pen name John Godey, told of a black mamba on the loose in Central Park after a sailor bringing it to New York was attacked. The book by the author of "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" was nominated for the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel by the Mystery Writers of America.
- #020
Venom was one of several Paramount projects rushed into production so they would not be delayed by the looming writers' strike in Hollywood. Paramount's then head of production, future A-list producer Don Simpson, hated most of these films, including "Venom." He told studio head Michael Eisner that all of the films were "dogs" and that none would be a hit, a prediction that proved 100% correct. Simpson stayed in his job only on the condition that Eisner immediately greenlight An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), a project Simpson had big plans for that became the third highest-grossing film of 1982, and he completed Venom (1981) and the other films alongside it.
- #021
Actress Cornelia Sharpe and producer Martin Bregman married in 1981, the year the film was released; Bregman produced the film and Sharpe played Ann Moray in the cast.
- #022
Much is said about how Oliver Reed and Klaus Kinski did not get along; in this film, however, their characters hate each other too, so it may have worked overall.
- #023
The venomous snake in the production is the black mamba, a highly deadly and fast-moving species native to sub-Saharan Africa that takes its name from the ink-black interior of its mouth.
- #024
When Oliver Reed's Dave realizes that Klaus Kinski's character is supposed to be his driver, after both have picked him up at the airport, Dave takes off his chauffeur's cap and tosses it into the passenger seat instead of sitting in the front, essentially claiming that he is NOT his driver and is merely driving the car.
- #025
The film was released first in Japan, then in the United Kingdom and later in the United States.
- #026
The original 1992 screenplay for Snakes on a Plane (2006) was titled "Venom," conceived by screenwriter David Dalessandro after he read a nature magazine article about Indonesian brown tree snakes that infiltrated aircraft cargo during World War II. The project was sold under that title to more than 30 Hollywood studios before New Line Cinema bought it, and the film was finally released in 2006. During development, production executives tried to rename the film "Pacific Air Flight 121," but the title was restored at the insistence of star Samuel L. Jackson.
- #027
The pairing of Oliver Reed and Sarah Miles in Venom (1981) was the second of three film collaborations spanning three decades, following the 1978 neo-noir thriller The Big Sleep (1978) and preceding John Hough's 1990 melodrama A Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990).
- #028
Lance Holcomb, the young star who played Philip in this film, received a promotional credit, but Ghost Story (1981), the gothic horror film in which Holcomb played the mentally disabled boy Fenny Bate, actually came first in most of the world.
- #029
In the commentary, the director noted that by the halfway point the film turns into a police procedural very similar to the British series The Sweeney (1975).
- #030
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "If Venom doesn't turn out to be the stupidest film of 1982, it's a good bet that the distinction will be hooted and hollered over."
- #031
The scientific facility where Dr. Marion Stowe, played by Sarah Miles, works is identified as the London Institute of Toxicology, the intended destination of the black mamba that was accidentally swapped for a harmless snake in an exotic pet shop.
- #032
Rather than a creature feature or horror film, it is actually a crime thriller about a kidnapping for ransom, since the snake becomes a threat within a main plot that is already in motion.
- #033
The ransom demanded for the kidnapped boy Philip Hopkins, played by Lance Holcomb, was £1 million from England, in mixed currencies.
- #034
Cornelia Sharpe and Klaus Kinski share the same birthday.
- #035
Cornelia Sharpe plays Sterling Hayden's daughter, and a decade later she played Al Pacino's girlfriend in Serpico (1973). Pacino and Hayden share several legendary scenes in The Godfather (1972).
- #036
Venom (1981) is a British natural horror-thriller film directed by Piers Haggard and written by Robert Carrington. It stars Sterling Hayden, Klaus Kinski, Sarah Miles, Nicol Williamson, Cornelia Sharpe, Susan George, Lance Holcomb and Oliver Reed. The film is adapted from Alan Scholefield's novel of the same name.
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