Mrs. Perch, an elderly, wealthy lady from rural America, is throwing a fancy garden party at her remote country villa. Same procedure as every year - except this time her illegally imported plant fertilizer seeps into the ground. Subsequently, a local species of killer wasps that usually lay their eggs into other insects mutates into 7 ft tall predators. And the celebrating upper class company provides just the right kind of prey. It's up to Paul and Julia, the two catering staffers, to stop the creatures, fight for their lives, and incidentally getting their stumbling romance in order. A fancy garden party turns into upper class prey when a colony of killer wasps mutates into seven foot tall predators. Oh, God, help him! I think something bit him! You're a doctor! Help him! I'm a gynecologist for Christ's sake! <br/><br/>I had a good feeling about this movie and the last old-fashioned giant insects film I'd seen was "Big Ass Spider". A movie with considerably over-sized vermin who marched along and wreak havoc among the present crowd . The combination of horror, comedy and romance caused already a bit of distrust. Ultimately, this film hit the ball wrong when it comes to the first two genres. And the last genre felt a little forced. It wasn't really comical at all. And scary or exciting it was nowhere so to speak. I was expecting a sort of B-movie with no impressive CGI, but it was in fact actually pretty disappointing.<br/><br/>We meet Paul (Matt O'Leary) and Julia (Jessica Cook), a bunch of friends / colleagues (not really clear) on their way to a garden party organized by a certain Mrs. Perch for her deceased husband. The two take care of the catering. Soon this pleasant party is thoroughly disturbed by giant wasps / hornets / bees (I have no idea what kind it was, but they all sting I guess) that obtained their proportions because a mixture of growth hormones and fertilizer ended up in the ground, right into a wasp / hornet / bees nest.<br/><br/>Firstly I must admit that you don't need to wait that long before the sh*t hits the fan. Before you know it, it's all slime and blood that splashes around. Guests struggling on the ground with foam on their lips after which giant insect start to burst out of them. Just as in "Big Ass Spider" the insects look realistic when they're still of a normal size. But the moment they get those unreal proportions, it looks as if they came straight out of a "Dr. Who" episode from the 70's. Especially the scene at the end looks extremely awful. Even the phenomenon that appeared at one time on the sons shoulder, and reminded me of "Total Recall" from 1990 where someone had an ugly little man growing on his belly, looked really outdated. But admittedly, the amount of gore was huge and at times highly entertaining.<br/><br/>Yet there was much that bothered me. The transformations that occurred after someone was stabbed, was startling fast (but this guaranteed the fast pace in this movie). The romantic part felt really out of place. If I was in this situation, then this was really the last thing I'd be worried about. The way Paul developed from an unreliable catering assistant into an outright hero, isn't that original either. And the way it ends up in the ambulance was probably a metaphorical reference to the movie title. I just didn't know why that would be humorous (just like I didn't get the joke about the bees), but maybe I have a wrong sense of humor.<br/><br/>All in all a simple, short story with some flaws, with especially a failed presentation of the annoying insects and a lack of humor and tension. I will still consume a sugary drink on a terrace without running away in panic at the sight of some curious wasps.<br/><br/>More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT It's difficult to find innovation in the monster movies (or "creature features") because they tend to follow a very simple and predictable formula in which the only surprise (if we are lucky) will be the design and aggressiveness of the creatures stalking the characters. If we only follow that strict criterion, Stung offers impressive practical and digital effects of the giants wasps attacking disposable characters. However, even the best monsters need a firm dramatic basis for the film to resonate on a deeper and more satisfactory level… and that's where Stung fails. The narrative and direction are so listless that they considerably decreased my enthusiasm, not only due to their lack of imagination, but also because the opportunity to create something unique and memorable was wasted. Besides, the performances are quite poor. The most famous member of the cast is Lance Henriksen, who is one of my favorite actors, but his work in this film feels insipid and not very credible; I guess he accepted being part of this movie just for the money. Jessica Cook is antipathetic and not convincing at all in a character built by clichés. And Matt O'Leary is absolutely hateful as the "hero"; I found his performance very irritating, and his character's tentative romance with Cook's doesn't have any credibility due to the complete lack of chemistry between both actors. As for the technical aspects, the cinematography is barely functional and Benni Diez (who made his debut with this film)'s direction lacks of "life"; I think Stung needed a more dynamic and creative director; not necessarily a "visionary", but at least, someone with enough affection for "creature features" in order to recognize and accentuate the pros, instead of exacerbating the limitations. And I don't know whether this can be considered a con, but Stung is clearly a European film (German, to be precise) which tries to look North American, without completely achieving it. I understand the commercial reason of that strategy, but the film's lack of personality might have been solved if it had completely embraced its national identity, instead of pretending to be something it isn't (as good examples, I can mention the Swedish film Wither and the Norwegian Dead Snow… both would have lost big part of their charm if they had denied the idiosyncrasy of their origin). However, as someone who has watched "creature feature" since the childhood, I was kept moderately entertained by watching huge wasps attacking an elegant party. I know that not every spectator will feel the same affection for monsters and creatures defying the laws of nature, but I can give Stung a slight recommendation to those people who have that fetish (like me). If everything else had been as good as that, we would have been in presence of a memorable film; unfortunately, it couldn't be more than a moderately entertaining, but mediocre one, specially due to the insipid direction. But, well… not everyone can be Peter Jackson or Sam Raimi on their debut. Until tepid animal-attack flick Stung, I had never thought to wish for a horror movie protagonist to not be rewarded with a make-out session at film's end.
Marsal replied
295 weeks ago