As if Louisiana didn't have enough problems already, the hurricane-ravaged state must now provide backwater locations for "Venom," a flagrant waste of celluloid unworthy of theatrical release.

"Backwater" was the working title of this miserably unhorrific horror flick (a late summer discard from the Miramax/Dimension Films housecleaning), and it's also the name of the bayou town near Baton Rouge where a bunch of photogenic teenagers hang out and taunt Ray, the scary-looking proprietor of Happy Time Towing, who looks like he rarely bathes and drives the kind of menacing truck you only find in horror films.

Movie review

Showtimes and trailer

"Venom," with Agnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Rick Cramer, D.J. Cotrona and Method Man. Directed by Jim Gillespie, from a screenplay by Brandon Boyce, Flint Dille and John Zuur Platten. 85 minutes. Rated R, for language and gory violence. Several theaters.

Ray's a wretch with a bad reputation, and life only gets worse when he gets involved in a traffic accident on a bridge, where he opens a suitcase full of serpents gathered up by a voodoo priestess who's just died in the accident. According to the priestess's daughter, the snakes contain the evil souls of their bite victims, harvested in a voodoo ritual. And now Ray, presumed dead from multiple snake bites and drowning, is chock-full of evil and eager to kill.

"Venom," on the other hand, is chock-full of absolutely nothing worthwhile. Its nondescript cast delivers nondescript dialogue en route to nondescript deaths (the undead Ray, now looking like a rotting cousin of Swamp Thing, appears to prefer tire irons as his weapon of choice), and director Jim Gillespie ("I Know What You Did Last Summer") films it all without a shred of inspiration.

"Scream" writer Kevin Williamson serves as producer here, which suggests that a little humor might have been injected through this movie's pointless fangs. No such luck. Even the title is lame, but it does convey the movie's overall effect: numbing and toxic.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net