Venom: Let There Be Carnage

image for Venom: Let There Be Carnage

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Not suitable under 15; parental guidance to 16 (violence, scary scenes, themes, language)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Venom: Let There Be Carnage
  • a review of Venom: Let There Be Carnage completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 November 2021.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 15 Not suitable due to violence, themes, scary scenes and language.
Children aged 15–16 Parental guidance recommended due to violence, themes, scary scenes and language.
Children over the age of 16 Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Classification: M
Consumer advice lines: Science fiction themes, violence, coarse language
Length: 97 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Eddie (Tom Hardy) and the alien symbiote, Venom (voice of Tom Hardy), that he is hosting are still working out how to get along and how to share a body. While his former girlfriend, Anne (Michelle Williams), has moved on with someone else, Eddie’s career appears to be going well as he has landed an exclusive interview with famed serial killer, Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). During the initial interview it is Venom who uncovers a clue to the location of the missing bodies. Eddie is given the credit of uncovering what the FBI failed to find and Cletus is sentenced to die. In a final interview Cletus bites Eddie and ingests some of Venom’s blood which transforms him into Carnage (voice of Woody Harrelson) a far more deadly and lethal version of Venom. Cletus escapes from prison and sets off to find Francis Barrister (Naomie Harris), his long-lost love from whom he was ruthlessly separated. Francis has a deadly super-scream that has kept her locked up for countless years but when Cletus sets her free it is Eddie and Venom who must set their differences aside and work together to defeat a pair who may appear to be more powerful but who are not so perfectly matched.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Parasites; Alien life forms; Childhood trauma; Serial killing; Revenge.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is frequent violence in this movie, including:

  • Francis screams at a police officer who shoots her in the head and throws her out of a moving van.
  • Venom erupts from the side of Eddie’s neck and tries to eat the police sergeant.
  • Eddie and Venom fight together in a toilet cubicle.
  • Venom says that he will remove a guy’s head and use it for bowling.
  • Venom eats some chickens.
  • A mass grave is discovered where Cletus buried the bodies of all those he killed.
  • Cletus pushes his wheelchair-ridden grandmother down the stairs to her death.
  • Cletus electrocutes his mother.
  • Cletus’ father brutally beats him as a child.
  • Boys at a home beat Cletus. He is saved by Francis screaming.
  • Cletus attacks and bites Eddie.
  • Venom head-butts Eddie twice. They smash each other into furniture and the refrigerator. They throw stuff out the window and Venom strangles Eddie.
  • Venom destroys Eddie’s bike and rides off in another body, flipping the rude finger.
  • Cletus is strapped to a chair and given a lethal injection.
  • Cletus and Carnage smash up the prison.
  • Carnage stabs his tongue down a man’s throat.
  • Carnage creates a whirling tornado within the prison. He sucks the warden into its centre and eats him. Cletus says, “Warden you tasted just like ham”.
  • There is a decapitated body and a truck is thrown over a bridge.
  • Cletus kicks a convenience store clerk in the head, repeatedly smashing him into the ground and stomping on him till he is dead.
  • A character threatens another saying that, “I will slice your face into a pie”.
  • Carnage kills the guards at a secret facility. There is mass destruction as police shoot at them and then are killed. Helicopters are also taken down in fiery explosions. Scientist and police bodies lay everywhere in the aftermath.
  • Carnage and Venom fight in a cathedral, stabbing, throwing, punching, tentacles impaling each other, etc.
  • A character has his eye poked out while he screams.
  • A character tries to burn Carnage.
  • Eddie and Cletus fight, smashing and punching each other as they wrestle. Cletus then tries to smash Eddie with a hammer while telling him that he will watch Anne die.
  • Venom is stabbed in the leg as he attempts to save Anne. Venom is then choked, stabbed and suffocated. He is repeatedly impaled through the chest.
  • Francis is knocked down and is crushed by a large bell.
  • Venom eats Carnage.
  • Venom literally bites Cletus’ head off.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Venom and Carnage are both quite scary-looking. They have sharp, jagged teeth, sinewy bodies and tentacle like arms that protrude from every direction. Everything about them appears to be sinister and threatening.
  • Cletus is given a lethal injection and he begins to shake violently as something courses through his veins. There is a violent and rapid change as he begins to morph into Carnage, a large, red, alien monster, far worse than Venom. He instantly begins attacking innocent people, killing or eating them on the spot. The scene is graphic and intense and would greatly disturb most young viewers.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Any of the fighting or mass destruction scenes are likely to scare or disturb children in this age group. They are brutal and vengeful and many innocent people are killed. One guard begs for his life, telling Carnage he is a dad, but he is savagely murdered without a second thought.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Children in this age group are likely to be scared or disturbed by this film.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further of concern.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Ketchup is named and used, though the product itself is not shown.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A woman tells Venom he looks sexy.
  • Anne has to convince Venom that he is attractive in order to get him to help her.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • A cartoon figure is shown standing up in a bath tub, naked from behind. She is then electrocuted by her son.
  • Francis and Cletus kiss passionately as Carnage wraps his tentacle like arms around her cell, crushing it and pulling her closer into Cletus’ embrace.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • Numerous characters appear to be vomiting and or drunk.
  • Eddie appears to have a hangover and tells Venom that he can fix those.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • What a dick
  • Shit
  • Fuck
  • You suck
  • Bitch
  • Pussy
  • Ass and asshole.

In a nutshell

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is the sequel to the 2018 film, Venom, by Marvel studios. The film is full of fast paced action and violence but is somehow lacking in depth. This is not a family film but one that will be best enjoyed by Marvel fans and mature audiences.

The main message from this movie is that sometimes the most unlikely partners can make a pretty good team.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Teamwork
  • Forgiveness
  • Courage
  • Persistence
  • Tolerance.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Violence as a means to solve conflict.
  • The ramifications of child abuse and the long-term consequences that can take place.
  • Bullying and the negative impact this has on both victim and perpetrator.
  • The lasting effects of loss that are felt by the families of those who are killed.