Get a new, hi-res look at Tom Hardy as Venom

‘Venom’ (Oct. 5)

Stars: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed

Director: Ruben Fleischer

The skinny: “An American Werewolf in London” was an influence for the body horror faced by journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), who becomes the unwitting host for an alien symbiote that turns him into a snarling, fearsome antihero. “In the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing, he’s the real Hyde,” Fleischer says. “He’ll rip somebody’s head off and eat their brains. There’s this forbidden-fruit quality of this guy who will just do whatever he wants.” But there’s also a funny side to this menacing figure, including a “silly tongue always dangling out of his mouth that kind of undercuts the ferociousness of the jaws.”