WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Venom: Let There Be Carnage, in theaters now.
One of the most hyped elements of the new Venom movie is the birth of its titular villain. Let There Be Carnage will fully introduce Woody Harrelson's take on Cletus Kasady, a Spider-Man villain just as iconic as Venom himself. As the title would suggest, the birth of the red symbiote is sure to unleash unholy hell upon all who stand in Carnage's way, and this starts from the moment of conception.
Carnage's creation stems from a violent altercation between Kasady and Eddie Brock, with a later near-death experience finally uniting the symbiote with Kasady. Given Kasady's characterization and the involvement of blood, Carnage's transformation in Venom: Let There Be Carnage is almost vampiric in its violence. Here's how Venom 2 turns the villain into a bloodsucking monster.
In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the beginning of Cletus Kasady's career as Carnage begins when he's talking to reporter Eddie Brock, getting into a scuffle with him and biting him when he least expects it. This hungry crunch draws blood, likely due to Eddie trying to suppress the Venom symbiote from attacking in retaliation or defending him. Carnage immediately detects that something is wrong with Eddie's blood, however, with parts of the symbiote having been in his bloodstream.
This symbiote remnant doesn't manifest within Kasady's bloodstream until later when he's finally sentenced to be killed via lethal injection. This happens when the serial killer is surrounded by the families of the several victims he's theretofore left in his path. Right when the injections begin, however, the red symbiote in Carnage's blood counteracts and fends it off before finally uniting with him wholesale. Stating that "something wicked this way comes," Cletus finally turns into the massive vermillion symbiote Carnage, violently rampaging and ravaging all those nearby. This turn of events makes Venom: Let There Be Carnage into a full-on body horror romp.
Not only is the bloody transformation in Venom: Let There Be Carnage a lot more gruesome than how Eddie Brock became Venom, but it's also oddly vampiric in its imagery and context. The idea of Cletus biting someone and thereafter becoming some sort of supernatural monster is a reverse of traditional vampire origins, wherein a vampire bites their victim and makes them into a vampire as well. Some vampire stories even have people becoming vampires by drinking a vampire's blood, making this allusion stronger. Plus, since Kasady could easily tell what "impure" blood tasted like, this implies that he's already quite a connoisseur of the fluid.
Likewise, there's the fact that Cletus almost dies before the transformation completes, saving him and giving him incredible abilities. This further reflects vampirism, with human victims having to "die" and lose their humanity before truly becoming one of the undead creatures of the night. The fact that Kasady already had many victims can be compared to the kill counts of vampires, who often must feed on others to survive. Even the setting is dusky and dreary, evoking horror films.
Carnage's origin has typically involved the blood of Venom/Eddie Brock in some way, with the red hue of blood being the explanation for Carnage's crimson coloration. The story this time, however, makes blood even more vital to the superhero horror movie, making the deadliest symbiote ever a literal bloodsucker.
To see Cletus Kasady's gruesome transformation, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is now in theaters.
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