Critical reception
Venom garnered negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 13% based on 64 reviews, with a weighted average rating of 3.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A voodoo horror flick without the mojo, Venom is chock full of gory impalings of interchangeable teenage girls and hunky guys by an unstoppable zombie whose unimaginative rampage quickly lulls us to sleep." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 25 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Gillespie "smartly directed" a script that follows in the "stylish, energetic and darkly amusing horror movie tradition." Anita Gates of The New York Times wrote that the film "certainly can't be called a good movie, but within its genre it's perfectly palatable." Sean Axmaker of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised the film, noting: "Venom delivers everything a teen horror audience could ask for in a brisk 85 minutes."
Peter Hartlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: "Venom is a bad horror film, made worse by the fact that it takes place entirely in Louisiana. Although there isn't a hurricane or even much rain in the film, it's hard to get past the truth -- right about now, people who live in the bayou would probably consider a crazy guy running around with a crowbar a welcome alternative to the reality of the past two weeks." Paul Schrodt of Slant Magazine felt the film paled in comparison to The Skeleton Key, calling it "another lifeless (but peculiarly racist) Deep South horror movie" with "mostly unimaginative" deaths and set pieces.
Johnny Butane of Dread Central gave note of the film's "paper thin" story and characters, "over the top" acting and quick dismissal of the killer, but felt it was "a pretty decent slasher movie," concluding that: "Hopefully it'll find its audience on DVD, as I'm sure is Dimension's plan anyway; but if you get a chance to see it in theaters, give it a go. Don't go in with high expectations, and you might enjoy yourself!" Scott Weinberg of DVD Talk wrote of the film, "Ultimately, Venom is too darn familiar to become anyone's dark-horse favorite, and the screenplay is more bland and familiar than it is outright terrible, but I'd say it's worthy of a rental if you love the horror stuff. You probably won't adore the thing, but you'll most likely admire its nasty tenacity."
In 2014, the film ranked at number 61 on a list of the 100 Greatest Slasher Movies on the genre website Vegan Voorhees.