Stung

Although no masterpiece, STUNG is an unashamedly old-fashioned monster B-movie that actually turns out to be slightly better than expected; it's certainly better than the level of fare regularly turned out by the SyFy Channel over the last decade or so. The main problem this film has is not with the execution or the effects - which are surprisingly cool - but the moribund attempts at humour in the script, which is full of dumb lines and expletives.

Other than that, it's okay for a B-movie. Killer wasps attack a party, but this is only the beginning of the story as most of the running time is about big, gooey monsters and bodily horror. The special effects thankfully avoid cheesy CGI for the most part and revert back to decent, prosthetic work, which you may remember from the good ol' days of 1990s era horror such as SKEETER or TICKS. Lance Henriksen is the only actor of note here, but he has quite a big part and is unsurprisingly the best thing on the screen.

"Stung" is novel as it combines the classic zombie tale with John Carpenter's "The Thing." Monster wasps are attacking, and if you get bitten (or rather, "Stung") by one, you undergo a gruesome metamorphosis into a giant wasp, replete with lots of goo.

"Stung" is a "horror comedy" with zero laughs, but the wasps are worth looking at and the film gets points for not taking itself seriously. Further points are awarded as it stars horror veteran Lance Henriksen and Clifton Collins Jr (anyone involved in the production of Pacific Rim automatically gets a thumbs up in my book.) Factor in a misty, green-themed colour palette and we're presented with a film that's easy on the eyes.

Where the film falls flat is its lead: a tedious stoner-slacker who inexplicably transforms into a commanding hero the moment the giant wasps begin attacking. Where was all that gusto before, when all he was interested in was getting high? I guess a "hero" like this one is meant to appeal to 30-something men who, deep down, think they're special or have secret potential (or something) but can't ever be bothered to put down their blunt. Personally, I've never found anything appealing about an underachiever, and only in a trite male power fantasy like this one could the guy ever get the girl.

Stung is a simple cheap thrill, presenting over-the-top characters and gory scenes. It looks rather sloppy, but not without some appeal. The corny set-up have intended humorous acts, they are lightly done and in the spirit of irony. The presentation isn't top notch though, this won't rival smooth delivery of big budget movies, it is good for brief amusement nonetheless.

The story follows the crews and attendees of a party, which doesn't take long to completely crumble as monster wasps decide to attack. There's no scientific or dramatic tension like most monster movies, they just appear and wreak havoc. The main characters are the bartender and event planner, they predictably run around trying to fend off these abominations.

It plays with exaggerated violence tone, chopping heads and limbs in pretty sadistic manner. It also tries to extract any kind of humor with the bantering script, although this makes the characters rather unrealistic. For the practical and special effects, they are inconsistent in quality. CGI looks like it belongs to average video game, which doesn't really convey too much realism for a movie.

Few of the scenes look decent, especially with the bloody dismemberment. However, it can look inauthentic at times. Most of the cinematography involves jittery motion in dark tone, which is unfortunate since the brighter sequences fare better and a large portion of the movie happens in nighttime.

Narrative and effect are shoddy at best, but Stung does its job as light popcorn flick. If not anything, at least it provides a couple of giggles.

Fun fun fun ride with extremely likable characters. I will jump on a leg here and guess the budget for the movie wasn't very big, but the cast did an outstanding job. It's above average that's for sure. I mean I've seen way way way more expensive movies this year, that were classes below this one. (Jupiter Ascending is a good example).

I don't really know the two main protagonists as actors, but I sure do hope to see them again. Both are pretty natural and just plain cool.

Perfect flick with friends for a Saturday night. No nudity, its somewhat safe for juveniles as well, so bonus points for that.

If you like that genre, grab the nachos and have some fun with this one.

Well, this is horrorcom, naturally one expects some laughs, some insane action, some over-the-top set pieces..well, we got about half of the last ingredient here. The problem is, humor is just not there, neither in situations nor in jokes, the characters kinda drag through better part of the film awkwardly, not quite knowing what to say, or what kind of stunt to pull. Then, we have Mist-esqu insects galore, but that doesn't quite work out either. This flick can't decide what famous horror to pay its homage to, is it already mentioned Mist, Shaun of the Dead (through main guy who looks and acts very similar to Shaun - Simon Pegg) or Alien - during the final part.

Lance Henriksen is there - why, yes he is, and he elegantly works his way through undemanding role of a small town's Mayor, but the charisma is effortlessly present. Same can't be said for our young duo of caterers that just can't catch their lucky career break, and are falling in love while all hell breaks loose. Actually, Matt O'Leery (Paul) does his best and gets there while his partner, Jessica Cook (Julia) just kinda exists...yeah. Sorry guys, the flick, up to this point, is as dead as the party that's just about to get somewhat more interesting...but not overly so.

Effects and cinematography are very decent, but mostly generic story, sans decent laughs, motivation and chemistry between characters waters the whole thing down. This is not a bad watch, and it does picks up in the last..hmm forth of the film, but it's just not enough to make it a memorable, bloody, suspenseful and funny experience. And that's what every good horror comedy's about...or so I've heard. Passable, but nothing to write home about. OK, so it does have some good ol' splatter, nice fx and bloodshed, but...Sorry to report, I've not been stung by it.