Venom's Original Demise In Spider-Man 3 Was Pure Nightmare Fuel

Summary:

• Spider-Man 3 was a massive flop, in no small part due to the unnecessary addition of Venom against the director's wishes
• Still, the original design for the villain suggests that we could have gotten a version of the character that was actually scary
• In addition, the original ending felt like it was straight out of a horror movie and even proved too disturbing for test audiences

The third and final Spider-Man film directed by Sam Raimi is unanimously considered the weakest of the trilogy, and for good reason.

Despite the fact that it was a financial success, grossing $895 million against a budget of $350 million and managing to become the highest grossing film in the series, it was a turning point that led to the cancellation of the highly anticipated fourth film.

It is common knowledge that Spider-Man 3 suffered greatly from many questionable decisions pushed through by the studio against the director's wishes, resulting in a massive backlash from fans.

So when the exact same situation began to happen with the next film, Raimi had to leave the project to avoid repeating the same mistakes, and without the legendary filmmaker behind it, Spider-Man 4 quickly fell apart.

Sam Raimi Didn't Even Want Venom In The Movie

One of the most infamous aspects of the third film was that it featured three villains instead of just one, with Venom, arguably Peter Parker's most iconic nemesis, added against Raimi's will, as the director wasn't particularly fond of the character.

This might have worked if the villain had been done right, which we all know wasn't the case, as the character turned out to be incredibly shallow, even though Topher Grace, who portrayed the bad guy, did everything he could with the role.

Since all of this had to be packed into one movie, there was no time to show the complex history of Peter and the symbiote, so the alien organism changed hosts halfway through the story, attaching itself to Eddie Brock.

The latter also appeared in the movie out of nowhere without any prior mention, which took away from his and Parker's relationship and made their rivalry, which ultimately led to the birth of Venom, seem incredibly rushed.

To add insult to injury, the creature's design was also lacking, especially compared to the original intention of using animatronics, which, according to behind-the-scenes photos and videos, looked much more faithful to the original comics.

Sadly, all this impressive work was for naught, as Venom was eventually replaced by CGI that looked nothing like the bulky villain from the comics and was just Spider-Man with sharp teeth.

Venom’s Original Fate Was Straight Out Of A Horror Film

But even with all of these disappointing changes, at least the character's demise could have been memorable, as the original version of the film's finale felt like it was taken straight out of a horror movie, which seems fitting considering Raimi's full-length directorial debut came with 1981's The Evil Dead.

During the film's climax, it was revealed that the symbiote had completely consumed its human host when, after being stabbed by Peter, the creature removed its "face" to reveal Eddie's deformed skull, now with its signature sharp teeth.

The symbiote then discarded the bones of its now-useless host and made one last attempt to bond with Spider-Man, only to be destroyed forever.

Apparently the finale was even filmed, as evidence such as screenshots and pictures of props still exist, but the test screenings showed that it was a bit too much for audiences, so it was replaced with a much tamer official ending.

This is all very sad and shows perfectly how much the legendary villain was butchered during the production, leading to the underwhelming final result.

While the most recent on-screen iteration of the character, in the 2018 Venom movie starring Tom Hardy and its sequel, is much better, it's still far from perfect, and fans are waiting to this day to see a truly terrifying portrayal of the symbiote on the big screen.

Source: Wattpad