‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ Trailer Leans Into The Absurd

While the film doesn’t open until September 24, this is as good a weekend as any to drop the first teaser for Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage. All three big theatrical releases (Army of the Dead, Those Who Wish Me Dead and Spiral: From the Book of Saw) are R-rated and chasing genre-happy moviegoers. They also represent the first “big” weekend of the 2021 summer movie season after last weekend’s “curtain raiser” that was Jason Statham’s Wrath of Man. No, I’m not saying Andy Serkis’ Venom 2 will be R-rated, but the teaser is certainly selling the horror comedy vibe.

Yes, this tease, set to “One is the Loneliest Number,” looks, feels and plays like a flick directed by a guy who spent a lot of time working with Peter Jackson. The 150-second trailer leans into the absurd mismatched buddy comedy/queer romance subtexts of the first movie, which is of course what set it apart from a conventional studio-mandated franchise-specific spin-off based on commercially questionable IP. Thanks to the popularity of that IP, along with a go-for-broke Tom Hardy performance, Venom surprised us all by performing less like Halle Berry’s Catwoman and more like Jim Carrey’s The Mask.