Nerdly » ‘Medusa’s Venom’ VOD Review (Amazon Prime)

30th Nov2023

‘Medusa’s Venom’ VOD Review (Amazon Prime)

by Phil Wheat

Stars: Becca Hirani, Sarah T. Cohen, Connor Powles, May Kelly, Rita Di Tuccio, Ella Starbuck, Katiris Cooper, Asian Dixon, Keith Myles, Kate Sandison | Written by Craig McLearie | Directed by Chase Martins

I was a big fan of 2021’s Medusa, aka Medusa: Queen of Serpents, mainly down to the brilliant performance from Megan Purvis in the lead role of Carly and Sarah T.Cohen as her friend… and the fact the film was unlike anything producer Scott Jeffrey had been involved with at the time. For Medusa was a topical drama, wrapped up in the skin (pun intended) of a horror film; like the best of the genre the film was much more than skin deep (pun intended again), offering a layered tale about how women are treated in society. The film was all the more remarkable as it felt like one of the smallest productions Jeffrey and co. had put together. To deliver a film as good as the original, on a meagre budget, in a small setting (the whole film took place on a caravan site) and with a small cast was extraordinary.

So how does the sequel fare? A sequel I’ve been eagerly awaiting since the production was announced.

Well on the plus side Sarah T. Cohen is back as Simone and she’s joined by May Kelly, another mainstay, and highlight, of recent Jagged Edge / Proportion Productions; with Becca Hirani, aka Scott Jeffrey’s producing partner Rebecca Matthews back in front of the camera for the first in what seems like forever (actually it’s been two years – though Hirani, under the pseudonym Becky Fletcher, was an early “star” for Jeffrey’s in the likes of 2017s Fox Trap, Darker Shade of Elise, and the FIRST remake of Unhinged that Scott Jeffrey produced).

On the downside, Medusa’s Venom eschews any of the subtleties and layered storytelling of the original film, which isn’t surprising given that Craig McLearie’s (The Killing Tree, Conjuring the Genie 2) scripts for Jagged Edge / Proportion Productions, because they’re essential one and the same really, they aren’t that subtle – feeling more like films The Asylum might churn out. Which means we get a more straightforward horror tale of a group of snake women who are also sex workers – with lots more graphic violence… well, if you can call spitting black venom on folk “graphic violence”.

The biggest difference with Medusa’s Venom, when compared to the original film, is that the caravan site in the original film felt like a sanctuary for the women that lived there, under the protection of “Medusa” but here the caravan site feels like it’s under the control of Medusa, in this case Simone, who rules with an iron fist and venomous tongue (literally). Simone doesn’t so much as protect the women, instead forcing all that stay to “pay their way” with sex work and if they don’t obey her every word. That’s it, end of your stay AND your life!

In a way, this IS a continuation of the original story, with the women at the caravan site now taking back the power they didn’t have in the first film but as the saying goes, power corrupts and that seems to be the case for Simone and her new gaggle of medusa’s. Eventually, just about an hour into the film, Hirani’s Lola starts the process of undergoing the same venomous transformation that Megan Purvis did in the 2021 original and Medusa’s Venom retreads the first film’s story all over again. Only in a shorter amount of time.

I’ve seen filmmakers and critics alike say that if you don’t have a great idea for a sequel, you shouldn’t bother. And this sequel proves that. There’s no real story here, it certainly doesn’t build on what came before it; in fact, this could be seen as a step backwards. We’ve gone from women discovering their strength in the original film, strength that could’ve seen them do great things together; to women who just use their snake powers to kill bad punters under the pretence of “protecting” themselves. I get it, sex work is a profession that women feel can be the only option for them; and Medusa’s Venom posits that it’s a dangerous profession too but surely, with the power that comes with transforming, there’s an “out” from it? It certainly felt that way at the end of Medusa.

Thankfully there’s something of a love story in the midst of all the snake-charming drama (for this is more of a drama, with horror undertones than out-and-out horror) between Lola and Gabe (Connor Powles), which holds the film together but even the tide turns on that tale as Simone wants to sacrifice the innocent Gabe – which, like a lot of what occurs in Medusa’s Venom, feels at odds with the morality of the first film. OK, I get that the title “Medusa’s Venom” can have multiple meanings but here it seems the “venom” is focused on venomous retribution under the guise of setting people “free”. Again at odds with the hope of salvation that was felt at the end of the first film. And to LITERALLY recreate the end of Medusa in the sequel? Some might say symmetry, others lazy…