2018’s goopy, so-bad-it’s-good classic Venom is a destabilizing mix of intentional and unintentional comedy, returning the superhero movie to its natural state: camp. Directed with a happy smirk by Ruben Fleischer, Venom takes alien body horror and suffuses (infects) it with a superhero origin story—essentially Spider-Man but with grotesque, delayed manchild-puberty, instead of Peter Parker’s sweet preppy bumbling.

The idea is that an amorphous extra-terrestrial being, a slithery CGI jellyfishy creature known as a “symbiote”, has been recklessly imported to Earth by a visionary biotech baron: Dr Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), played as the love child of Elon Musk and Rishi Sunak. Drake subjects the gummy, writhing black blob to various scientific trials- in which it eats homeless people with no tangible scientific benefit.

The goop collides unexpectedly with Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), a lunkheaded investigative journalist who lobs some libellous questions at Drake in an interview, and ends up jobless, disgraced, and dumped. Eddie’s deus ex machina comes in the form of the aforementioned “symbiote,” an alien leather daddy named Venom who injects some homoerotic spice into his bachelordom. With his shiny black skin, gimp-mask eyes, and obscenely wriggling raw jumbo hot of a tongue, Venom gives Eddie invulnerability against the baddies who pursue him. And Eddie, eventually, gives Venom a semblance of humanity.

After a painstakingly sluggish exposition, the film loosens up and unfurls Venom’s true nature: a twisted rom-com between Brock and the rude Symbiote that’s attached itself to him. It’s like Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningstone, except Veronica enjoys human decapitation and sadistic taunts.

Brock proves a surprisingly good host for the alien creature, which, for one reason or another, decides to bond with Eddie til death does them part. ‘I’m in your mind Eddie,’ it rumbles, ‘you are a loser’. With Venom’s assistance, the loser can perform adrenaline-spiked feats like high-speed traffic chases and climbing skyscrapers — and, frankly, fighting injustice more effectively than he ever could as an ‘investigative journalist’. Eddie gets a perfunctory love interest in the form of Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, a serious lawyer identified by her sharp suits and terrible wig. The film doesn’t care to spell out what she and Brock see in each other, outside a moment when Venom vows that ‘we will get her back’; obviously, the real romance is between Eddie and Venom, who loves to point out that “I am inside you”.

Eddie needs Venom’s lethal powers to fight back against the biotech bros ruining the Bay Area, facing a Faustian deal: unleash the murderous alien in service of a greater good, or remain in his powerless human state. The choice is simplified by Venom’s bass-shaking, bitchy internal commentary, which is quick to call him a “pussy” when the need arises.

Hardy’s outlandishly physical performance bolsters the movie’s not-infrequent flashes of wit. Sometimes Venom directed by Ruben Fleischer feels like a David Cronenberg body-horror played for slapstick, as when Venom compels Eddie to climb into a lobster tank at a chic restaurant. They squabble. “Hungry!” the symbiote will boom inside his head in a deep growly voice, throwing Eddit into Nutty Professor-esque convulsions. Best of all, the oddly British-sounding alien awakens Hardy’s inner overserved Wetherspoons customer, guzzling down frozen tater tots and flinging furniture around like he’s on his way to a Milwall game.

At first there’s a struggle as Brock must curb Venom’s carnal urge for human body parts while Venom deals with Brock’s stubborn human morality. Eventually, they learn what drives each other insane (powerful sound waves for one; the growing wealth gap for the other), what hurts their feelings (being called a parasite), and what warms their souls (biting off heads like gummy bears then making out with Michelle Williams).

In fact, the sweetest moment comes when Venom confesses that while being fearsome on Earth, it too is a loser back home. As with any mismatched movie pair, Brock and Venom eventually find a common understanding- literally and symbolically bonded by their shared loserdom. Men’s mental health, everyone!