Spider-Man spin-off ‘Venom’ could go horror

Venom. Image: Sony Pictures via AFP Relaxnews

Comics bad guy Venom is to star in 2018’s “Spider-Man” film and, given the character’s nightmarish appearance, perhaps it’s appropriate that the project has been labeled a horror.

Both “Logan” and “Deadpool” have made box-office bank as R-rated comic book movies, until now a rare phenomenon.

Spidey’s rival Venom could contribute to the trend, depending on how hard Sony leans in on a direction for 2018’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” sequel, which industry production and job listings site MyEntertainmentWeb has pegged as a multi-genre movie: action, sci-fi and horror (per ScreenRant).

The Venom character is a symbiotic alien form that looks like a distorted, ghoulish version of clean-cut superhero Spider-Man.

With gaping jaw, sharpened teeth, slobbering tongue and musclebound physique, Venom has become a staple of the Spider-Man fiction, bonding with other characters in the Marvel universe and eventually evolving into an antihero rather than as a straight-up villainous force.

“Venom” had been previously announced for October 5. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” with Tom Holland as the title character is set to start its global release the week of July 7. JB

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