Venus

Director Jaume Balagueró is internationally known mostly for his Rec zombie flicks, and one more time he dwells into the pits of the horror genre - and he delivers: Venus is a well made trip with a solid production and good acting. The story: a dancer girl takes a good load of drugs from a drug lord and then gets some more deep trouble because some elderly women have some devilish plans of their own. Venus is for sure not a new classic or brilliant movie and will not stir as much fuzz as the first Rec movie did, but in the endless ocean of mediocre to bad horror movies that are produced these days, it is an entertaining entry, and that's not the worst thing to say about a movie of that genre.

I had not heard about this 2022 Spanish horror movie titled "Venus" before I had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. And seeing that the movie was based on the short story "Dreams in the Witch House" by H. P. Lovecraft, of course I was rather interesting in watching it. Especially so since Lovecraft happens to be my favorite author.

Writer Fernando Navarro delivered a fair enough script for the movie. However, it wasn't particularly reminiscent of the H. P. Lovecraft atmosphere. Yeah, there was a bit of cosmic dread in the storyline, but saying that "Venus" was based on the "Dreams in the Witch House" short story might be stretching that fact quite a bit. Loosely based, in anything at all.

"Venus" certainly was a watchable enough movie, though it didn't make for a particularly outstanding or memorable movie experience. Nay, director Jaume Balagueró delivered a movie that you will watch once, then shelf it and never return to watch it a second time.

The narrative in the movie was somewhat monotonous. While there certainly was a drive forward in the narrative, the story was just lacking that particular spice to make it outstanding and memorable. It wasn't there, and that made "Venus" a somewhat bland horror experience. I was harboring a bit more expectations to the movie than what director Jaume Balagueró delivered, I have to admit that much.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but then again I am not overly familiar with Spanish cinema. But I will say that the actresses and actors on the cast list did good jobs.

Visually then "Venus" was okay. It wasn't a movie that was depending on a massive amount of special effects, and whatever effects were in the movie certainly worked well enough in favor of the atmosphere of the movie.

All in all, "Venus" is a watchable movie, albeit a somewhat forgettable and bland one.

My rating of "Venus" lands on a five out of ten stars.

And a mucho mucho dark horror story coming outta the rather bad ridden parts of madrid of spain, a new queen of the kingdom of darkness is to be found, the desperately searching disciples turns the world into turmoil to find the right person...

at the same time a local drug kingpin is robbed off in his club by one of the clubs dancers. The loot of human demolition aka blue crysalis tablets worth its weight in gold really makes havoc in the gangster community, and a killer squad is sent out to find the thieving magpie...

a very well made spanish mystery horror flick, not the most elaborated story, but neatly dark and bloodgored to the fingertips, cast well chosen for the acts, and the sleuth ideas of a plot will for sure make even the most squemish viewers shed a tear when the clashes of the titans starts. So a recommend from the grumpy old man.

Whoa! A LOT of blood, violence, gangsters, drugs, twisted witches and enough WTF moments. And lead Ester Expósito is gorgeous.

Also inspired by H. P. Lovecraft. This was a BLAST. Well directed and shot. Well acted and an interesting watch throughout. I watched it in Spanish and my Spanish is far from good. But Venus was easy enough to follow and has shades of Rosemary's Baby, Hellraiser, and even for some reason reminded me of Troma's Rabid Grannies, even though it is nothing like that. Venus is a solid film and I was glued. This was fun.

Highly recommended Spanish horror. From the director of REC.

Venus is a well put together film about a go go dancer making way with a bag of stolen drugs to her estranged sisters apartment only to find out that their is a much more sinister plot within the building.

The cinematography is absolutely ace, despite there being dark scenes we can clearly make out what is happening so major props to the lighting crew and the colorist ontop of the D. P.

The acting is pretty damn good all around, nothing pulls you out of the film and it's all believeable.

The special effects with the blood and gore was pretty awesome too, some of the cgi blood was a bit noticeable but the make-up department definitely helped with the practical to make it blend better.

I would say the only annoying factor with this film was the cgi planets, this kind of took me out the film as well as the weird piano motif when the sister and daughter have emotional moments together.

All in all I would say this is a great film to spend your time with alone and with the lights off.