Venom : Post Credit Scene Cringe

Spoiler Warning

Before you read this please go and watch Venom! I'll be diving into spoiler territory in terms of what we can expect from the Venom sequel so turn back now if you haven't seen the movie.

Let's Talk About It

With that outta the way, let's talk about it. So there I was, sitting in my cushioned theater seat with a big smile on my face after enjoying my time watching Venom and listening to Eminem's song play during the credits. Yep, that's right, Eminem released a song for Venom on his new CD and the song is just as amazing as you'd think. Then the after credit scene began to play and I knew what was coming, I knew Cletus Kasady was going to be teased, but rumors of Woody Harrelson had me nervous.

Before I go into the scene let me first put my cards on the table and expose my bias so you can better understand my opinion. First, Carnage has always been one of my top 5 villains, so getting the correct portrayal for a such a horrifying villain had me watching the scene with baited breathe. And the second Woody Harrelson's face came into focus I couldn't help but yell profanity at the inanimate movie screen. Honestly, Woody Harrelson would have been a good choice... about 20 years ago, but now? No, and let me tell you why. I personally have Woody Harrelson fatigue after annually seeing him in a movie every year since Zombieland in 2009. I'm sick and tired of Woody Harrelson and Hollywood's need to put him into every quirky character they can shove him into. I get it, Woody Harrelson is an odd guy so he's the first person a casting director thinks of, but can we maybe think of someone else, anybody else? In my opinion, casting Woody Harrelson in this role is only marginally better then casting Nicolas Cage, who seems to sign on to any script that's thrown at him. In all seriousness though, it seems as though fans have once again done a better job casting for there favorite Spiderman villain then Hollywood. Names such as the actor Cameron Monaghan from Gotham, Michael C. Hall from Dexter, and Jackie Earle Haley who played Rorschach in Watchmen have all been brought up. Personally, I'm a big fan of the idea of Cameron Monaghan, but I honestly would have rather of seen any of these actors, or maybe even a no-name actor play the role. Anyway, now that you better understand the lens I'm viewing this scene through lets talk about it.

What Happened!? 

The scene treats us to Eddie riding to a secure facility as he plans to interview a highly violent fugitive. Any fan of Spiderman and the lore behind Venom already has an idea of who he's going to see. As Eddie walks through the halls of the high security prison the guard warns him to stay on his guard despite the fact that he's in an isolated space within the prison. Finally, Cletus Kasady is revealed and as Eddie walks into his cell within a cell the camera focuses on Cletus writing "Welcome Eddie" in blood. The two then have a short dialog exchange, Cletus asks "You mind if we forego the creepy serial killer thing... I mean I can turn it on if you want," setting the tone with a little exposition. By the end of the scene Cletus asks him to get closer, and when Eddie does Cletus says, "When I get outta here, and I will. There's gonna be carnage." And that was it.

What Went Wrong?

First, I believe the sole reason Woody Harrelson was chosen for this role was the director's friendship he grew with the actor while shooting Zombieland. Ruben Fleischer even sat down with IGN for a one-on-one interview about the Venom movie and the inclusion of Carnage came up. Fleischer discusses how it would be interesting for Harrelson to re-enter the role he played in Natural Born Killers. Are you serious? That was 24 years ago! So as I mentioned previously maybe he would have done justice to the character 20 years ago, but today he's old enough to play Cletus' father, who (fun fact) killed Cletus' mother. But I've clearly gone into detail as to why I believe Carnage was mercilessly miss-cast, so lets move on.

The wig! What in god's name was the reasoning for giving Harrelson that wig!? Honestly, if I wasn't so upset about the casting, I would have been laughing about the Little Orphan Annie wig he was trying to pull off with a straight face. It's nothing short of laughable and an absolute disgrace. The costume design looked as though they had a dollar store budget, or maybe they were going for a Ronald McDonald look, either way it was impossible not to notice. And the accent! What in god's name... alright it's not as bad as the wig, but his accent seemed to be all over the place. At times he seems to have a southern draw, and next he's speaking in a plain American accent.

All these factors only added to the overall, anti-climactic scene. The scene itself seemed like it was written using a psychopath check list.
- Locked in a cell, within a cell, in a prison ✓
- Guard warns you before speaking with him ✓
- Use blood to write on something ✓
- Cell has see through walls ✓
- Speak in a calm manner ✓
- Say something intelligent/philosophical ✓
- Ask the visitor to get closer ✓
- End your menacing line with a smile ✓

Whoever wrote this scene clearly watched Silence of the Lambs and decided to add a couple more tropes to pass this paint by numbers scene off as original. But here's the real issue, Cletus Kasady isn't Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs, and he's not Mickey Knox from Natural Born Killers, he is something else entirely. He is not calm, cool, and collected, he's chaotic and unpredictable. This is what makes him a powerful force of nature, because his persona gives readers the belief that he is truly uncaring and unstoppable. And yet one of his first lines practically pokes fun at this as he asks if they can skip the whole being a creepy serial killer routine.

Finally, his last line made me cringe. The reason being that, everyone who stayed to watch the after credit scene knows this is Cletus Kasady, and knows Cletus is Carnage, so why say it? It feels like the director was holding my hand throughout the scene and then bashed the fact that Carnage was coming in the sequel over my head as hard as he could. Subtlety goes a long way, just look at the ending of Batman Begins. You never see the Joker, and his name isn't even spoken, Batman is simply handed a card and the scene allows the audience to fill in the blanks.

How We Can Fix This

Yes, that's right, I still think we can fix this through creative story telling. What if the man in the cell is in fact Cletus' father and is simply using his son's name as an alias to keep off the grid. We learn this as Eddie Brock dives deeper into the life of who he thinks is Cletus Kasady but is in fact an impostor who didn't start using that name until his first murder, who was his wife. Eddie then learns that the man has a son who was accused of killing his Grandmother, and was sent to an orphanage until they could get the evidence they needed to put him in penitentiary. But as Eddie rides towards the orphanage, a fire truck beats him there as a wall of police cars and chaos blocks him from getting through. Venom also warns Eddie not to get any closer as he's weak against fire and maybe even fearful of it. And just as the scene is set, fire putting fear into Venom, as chaos circles them we then see a young man being led into a police car while laughing and fighting against the police, begging them to let him see the children's bodies burn. Time slows as the police car then passes Eddie and the two lock eyes. He stands frozen looking at Cletus as though the line between vigilante and true evil is drawn between them.


But maybe I'm judging a 2 minute post credit scene a bit too harshly. What do yo think, is there hope for Carnage, or is all hope lost in those curly red locks