Horror Movie Review: Medusa’s Venom (2023)

2020’s Medusa, aka Medusa: Queen of Serpents, wasn’t a great Jagged Edge Productions film, but it was a good one. Mainly because it explored its characters in a way we don’t often see from the company and really delved, in an interesting way, into how women are treated in society.

Where did it all go so wrong? Which, when you consider this sequel stars Sarah T. Cohen and May Kelly, tells you that it’s a writing and directing issue. Writers Matthew B.C. and Craig McLearie have turned into a pretty rubbish script here and director Chase Martins struggles to get much out of it.

Layered story-telling and nuanced characters are out the window, in favour of a group of sex workers who are all under the spell of Medusa and willing to kill every man (or woman) that comes their way. She is top dog (or should that be snake?) and to survive under her rule, is to do as your told, sell your body, and kill the men. What was once a haven for women has become a sort of work camp. Doesn’t sound much like the first film, does it?

That is until Becca Hirani’s Lola comes along to effectively rethread the exact same path that Megan Purvis’ character did in the first film. Albeit in much less time, in less effective fashion, and with less drama or emotion. There’s wanting aspects of the first film to be used, but not the exact same plot points. Especially with a different and less interesting character.

It’s at this point in the film it becomes clear that there weren’t any good ideas here and this can barely even be called a sequel. The decision to make Medusa’s Venom a straight-up horror film was a big mistake. The first film had horror elements, but it was the drama that enhanced that side of things and helped hide the flaws. Here, all the flaws are on show and they’re really hard to look at.

This is a bad day at the office for just about everyone, and while no-one can hold their head high here, it’s a rare thing these days to find a Jagged Edge Productions film be this bad, which can only ever be a positive thing. It’s a shame that Medusa’s Venom couldn’t build on the good work done by the original film, but even at its worst, it shouldn’t be this pointless.