“Why would we do that?”
That’s Eddie Brock there, reacting in horror at his body’s inky-black mutations in the official international trailer for Venom.
And we should emphasize the word ‘we’, as Sony and Ruben Fleischer’s Spider-Man spinoff is all about fusing Brock, a mentally vulnerable reporter, with the alien symbiote (sym-BEE-ote, not sym-BYE-ote) known only as Venom. The result? A third, entirely new entity capable of wiping out a posse of armed goons without so much as batting an eyelid.
It’s this story template that hopes to extract the very best out of Tom Hardy, too, who went the extra mile to lend his vocal chords to the enraged symbiote during the film’s post-production. All of this (and more!) can be glimpsed during Venom‘s international trailer, which teases more of the same.
If nothing else, this is a timely reminder of Hardy’s dual performance, not to mention the ways in which Venom draws its inspiration from some of cinema’s greatest directors. That’s right, all throughout development, Fleischer has name-dropped the likes of John Carpenter and David Cronenberg as major influences, creatively speaking, so it’ll be interesting to watch as that horror legacy is infused into Hollywood’s superhero genre.
Business is booming for the genre of costumed crusaders, but it’s fair to say that Venom, with its demonic anti-hero and horror sensibilities, is not your average superhero movie.
Set to jump-start Sony’s own Marvel franchise this fall, Venom is expected to slither into theaters on October 5th. And only then will we know if the studio’s wildly ambitious universe is off to a good start.