Stung

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.

Creature features are a tough thing to pull off. Stungnado here may not be the best of the bunch (Eight legged Freaks was a lot of fun to name one in recent memories that got it right), but it does have a couple of moments. Seeing the duo of Lance Henriksen and Clifton Collins can always be fun. Even if they are underwritten characters. But everything is underwritten here.

So try to take joy of simple things. Like the fact the actress playing a catering boss is called Cook. If you can laugh at that, you may find some funny moments in this too. Then again there is a lot wrong with it too, so our main hero is a bit bland, the love story doesn't really work. But the effects are decent and if you don't have high expectations it can be a fun ride of sorts

Stung offers truck loads of buggy fun. From its opening scenes through to its conclusion this a fun filled, unashamedly camp horror, complete with a cast of colourful, intentionally stereotypical, characters.

Stung taps into the 1950/60's big menacing bug genre. Its all been done before but I have to say, probably not this well, in a long time. In spite of its modest budget, Stung, is a polished affair. The acting is good, the special effects reasonable and whilst the storyline is predictable, its so well presented you hardly notice. There's a few moments of black humour thrown in too, which further enhance what is already a decent film.

If you like your horror a little camp, quirky and generally over the top fun you should give Stung a try. Eight out of ten from me.

You have to watch the fist half hour to get into this movie. It's setting things up. I was bored and was going to switch it off after 20 minutes but stayed on. It worth watching...The acting is average and the relationships are pretty poor but maybe that's part of the quirky making of this film - not sure? The most peculiar thing is the the main character continues to run around in this movie as if he is unstable on his feet and always looks like he's going to fall over. It begins at the start falling over chairs? What the hell is this about? It looks extremely deliberate - maybe its part of the stupid comedy aspect? If you like horror with some quirky comedy then get on board. The best line is when the mother mutates and three people say in sequence "holy....mother...fucker!!" that was pretty funny.

A horror movie doesn't necessarily always have to be good or surprising. Sometimes it's more than sufficient already if it lives up your hopes and/or expectations. In case of "Stung", for example, I had only set my hopes on seeing an unhinged and over-the-top giant creature-feature with plentiful of gore and a straightforward simplistic plot. Guess what! "Stung" delivers just that! And if you aren't too skeptical either, you're guaranteed to have a fun time with this German/American co-production that is (nearly) a genuine throwback to the glorious days of 70s animal-horror. There exist several bee-movies (like "The Swarm", "The Deadly Bees" or "Terror out of the Sky"), but apart from Roger Corman's "Wasp Woman" there aren't too many movies about killer wasps to my knowledge. The recipe for pure entertainment here exists of a totally bonkers plot, good old- fashioned gross-out special effects and bad but likable acting performances. The nervous and uptight Julia has just taken over her father's catering company and constantly worries that things will go wrong, in sheer contrast to her co-worker Paul, who just wants to relax, smoke weed and make out with Julia. They head out to cater the annual garden party of the eccentric Mrs. Perch and her creepy son Sydney at their secluded country estate. Mr. Perch used to make a fortune in the pharmaceutical business, but now his wife and son remember his death through annual garden parties where several prominent community members come to, like Mayor Caruthers for example. The evening quickly turns into a nightmare, as hundreds of mutated wasps intrude the party and viciously attack the guests. Since oddball Sydney experimented with chemical pesticides and fertilizers, the wasps are oversized and extremely aggressive … and they lay their eggs inside their victims' bodies, with horrendous subsequences. After an admittedly rather slow start, "Stung" is a non-stop fun and thrill- ride with too many gory highlights to list. The sight of humongous wasp-monsters bursting out of their human hosts is just terrific, especially because quite often the human leftovers – like entire heads – remain stuck on their insect armor. There's a nicely balanced mixture of traditional special effects and above-average decent computer engineered effects. The sound effects of the films are also imaginatively nasty. Apparently the sound of cracking lobster shells can be used to imitate the sound of giant fake wasps! As said, the acting performances aren't very good, but they are definitely likable. There's a nice and almost natural chemistry between Matt O'Leary and Jessica Cook, while the familiar faces Lance Henriksen and Clifton Collins Jr. are responsible for the more memorable and flamboyant supportive roles.

Oh, and the answer to the riddle in the subject line is: Stinging in the Rain