The Horror Show
Stung
by Benni Diez
Killer insect movies are quite a common occurrence, especially on Syfy. Good ones are few and far between. The only one I can think of that I really liked was Arachnophobia, and that came out like twenty-six years ago. Seriously, how hard is it to make a good movie about killer bugs? Anyways, I decided to give Stung a chance, hoping that maybe this was good. But it’s not. It’s the kind of movie that you put on as a joke when you’re with friends, but then twenty minutes in you realize the joke isn’t funny.
Paul and Julia, one works for and the other owns a catering business respectively, take a job for a rich elderly woman named Mrs. Perch. However, no one knows that she’s used an illegal fertilizer mixed with growth hormones for her garden. The growth hormones causes the local wasp population to rapidly grow and mutate. In the middle of the party, the wasps attack and kill many of the guests. Their sting isn’t just lethal, it’s also their method of reproduction. In seconds, the hosts explode and a wasp roughly the size of the creature emerges. The remaining survivors must now defend themselves against giant killer wasps.
I guess the biggest problem with this movie is that it doesn’t know what kind of movie it wants to be. I think this movie is supposed to be a horror comedy but it’s not funny, the jokes often falling flat. For example, at the party, there is this creepy guy who tries hitting on Julia and it turns out he’s a gynecologist with the joke ultimately being that because he’s a creep he chose to study vaginas. Another joke is when Mrs. Perch’s son, Sydney, calls the cook a “fucking Mexican” she then exclaims that she’s from Argentina. What was the joke there? Rich white people are racist? Hilarious, right? No. The jokes are often delivered in such a serious manner that they can be completely overlooked.
And that’s the problem, the film also wants to be taken seriously. Shortly after the Argentinean woman dies, Paul tells a long winded story about how he saved a kid from drowning only for him to die of pneumonia weeks later. That’s some heavy stuff there. I feel like the director was trying to get deep but it couldn’t be taken seriously. The moment I started the movie I knew it was going to have this identity crisis. The first word in the movie is an f-bomb, with generic license-free rock music playing. By making an f-bomb the first word in a movie they’re saying, “Look how funny and edgy we are.” The rock music says, “Look at how cool and broodingly serious I am.” That was the entire movie for me.
The acting is also terrible; the actors didn’t seem to receive any sort of direction beyond “go crazy” or just “look bored.” Eighty percent of the movie the actors just seem completely uncommitted in their performances. The rest of the movie they act so over the top you could swear that you were watching the Disney Channel. Yes, a swarm of wasps are scary but to act like they’re in a tween comedy is ridiculous. Disney Channel comedies are so over-the-top because they’re trying to hold the attention of their tween demographic, not adults. The chemistry between the actors isn’t good either. You know that Paul and Julia are going to hook up by the end of the movie, yet, the dynamic between the two actors is terrible. The sexual tension between the two isn’t cute, it’s just awkward. Like you’re watching two strangers going on a first date, not two people who’ve known each other for a long time.
Everything culminates into a huge boring mess. Seriously, sitting through this movie and staying awake was a real chore. I nodded off a few times and didn’t even regret it. If I can sleep partially through a movie and miss nothing then it’s a boring movie. It doesn’t help that the set up for this movie is ridiculously long. Twenty minutes is how long it takes for the movie to actually start, everything else is just unnecessary setup. They proceed to kill the rest of the characters, besides Julia and Paul, in the next thirty minutes. That leaves another thirty minutes of just the two main characters sneaking around, hiding, talking, and occasionally fighting giant wasps. That being said its boringness can be attributed to its terrible pacing.
The only redeeming factor in this movie is the special effects department. I’m not talking about the CGI though. All CG sequences are obviously CG, bad like Syfy channel bad. The practical effects are fantastic and brutal. Seriously, the giant wasps look almost believable and the gore looks painful. And there are several cringe worthy moments, like the wasp controlling Sydney. I give myself the shivers just thinking about it. I know practical effects aren’t always practical, but movies, especially in the past, have done flying chase sequences before without using CGI. I’m not hating on CG here, but if you have the means to make it look as real as possible, then go for it. If you don’t you should stick with practical effects. I can sit and point out what’s CG and what isn’t, and that’s a bad thing.
I really wish this movie was good. Instead, I swore this couldn’t have even been a Syfy original production. The premise isn’t terrible, but it’s all in the delivery. This movie is conflicted far too often, like the acting, the tone, and hell, even the sound design. The ambient noises are great and suspenseful, but the royalty-free music is just hilariously bad. It like the sound design guy just used prerecorded sound clips in Garage Band to put a track together. It’s sad that it only had the special effects going for it because if it was made with a clearer direction in mind, this could have been a good movie. Stung is very unmemorable, and this sting is no more than a minor irritation that I’ll soon forget.
Billy Wayne Martin, HMS
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