The Rather Unsettling Reason Venom is Trending

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse on Earth.

The internet is still trying to figure out what the hell this is -- and many are convinced it's Spider-Man's nemesis Venom.

On Thursday, Twitter user @sunnyarkade posted a clip of a seething black mass perched on a rock, which bore an uncanny resemblance to Marvel's alien symbiote villain.

In the the creepy 14-second video, a group of men can be heard huddled around the lifeform, apparently trying to figure out what exactly they were looking at.

One even sticks a knife in it a number of times to drag it apart... and it simply slithers back together unperturbed.

While Venom was the most obvious guess, there were many more besides, from Princess Mononoke's demon boar god Nago, to Nutella-covered spaghetti, and everything in between.

One of the most popular guesses was, of course, COVID-19.

Although the lifeform looked like it may have been a group of worms massing on something - it may have been just one.

Some speculated it was Lineus longissimus, AKA the Bootlace Worm, a highly toxic worm that can stretch to up to 180ft long. When handled it secrets a thick pungent mucus that smells like sewage as a defense mechanism, which can kill cockroaches and crabs.

Others speculated the whole thing was a PR stunt by Sony as a (very) viral promotion for the (hopefully) upcoming Venom sequel, once again starring Tom Hardy as the anti-hero.

As of now, the film is still scheduled for its October 2 release, with fans clinging to hope Halloween will not also get swept along in the coronavirus push back of cinema release dates