Stung (2015) Directed by Benni Diez
Well, to be fair; this movie is exactly what you would expect it to be. Not great, with a silly premise and heavy on the gore but is it fun and decent as well? Not enough unfortunately.
This movie knows what it is, so it's constantly very self-aware. This, as always, can go both ways; it can make the movie very fun and entertaining to watch but it can also make a movie lame and almost tedious to watch. And to be honest, I'm starting to feel fed up with these self-aware and tongue in cheek horror flicks. Why can't horror movies be fun anymore without constantly having to wink into the camera, referencing other genre movies and clichés, while also deliberately, forcefully, exaggerating everything and be as crazy and silly with its concept as possible. Instead of this making the movie entertaining it makes the movie, more often than not, annoying to watch. It also pretty much ruined all of the horror aspects that a genre movie such as this still needs to have in it in order for it to work out as an engaging and effective one.
Needless to say that this movie never becomes a scary or even remotely tense one to watch. There is never a good buildup to anything and as I said before, it just simply wants to be as crazy as possible. Unfortunately not crazy in a very creative way as well. Everything is rather predictable due to the way how certain scenes and shots get set up. The horror purely relies on its gore, which still is pretty fun and impressive to watch at times but it's not anything that helps to make this a very good horror movie as well.
I liked how the movie wasn't a constant CGI-fest and I appreciate the fact that the movie was using mostly practical effects, which does make it odd though that the movie still made the choice to feature some pointless and fake looking CGI in it as well at certain parts. Give me some fake looking puppets and ketchup for blood over fake looking CGI effects any day of the week! It at least shows that you have been creative and put some serious time, love and effort into the making of your movie.
Normally I would complain about these movies being too long but in this case it feels far too short, strangely enough. It's around 90 minutes long but just when it starts to pick up some pace and starts to feature some good and fun moments in it, it's over again. Even though I wasn't liking the movie overall, I still felt disappointed with it ending as soon as it did, as contradictory as that may sound. Perhaps this also had to do with the fact that the movie wasn't really building up toward anything and the movie doesn't feature a big and tense or spectacular climax in it.
The lack of story is apparent, pretty much from the first minute on already. None of the characters feature any interesting arcs, there is no mystery and there is no clear goal. Because of this the movie can never buildup to anything, which results in it being a rather pointless and forgettable one to watch. It's also the type of movie that features as many characters and lines of dialog in it, just to fill the movie up with so that it isn't under an hour short, even if it doesn't add anything to the main story of it. Sure, because of that Lance Henriksen is in it as well and that's never a bad thing but this unfortunately also made the movie do some cheap Alien-movies knockoff moments that were too much of a distraction and felt too forced, without adding anything to the fun of the movie.
It's still better than the average modern genre attempt and it's not entirely without fun but it ultimately really is nothing more but a very forgettable and mostly ineffective killer animal movie, without any good horror in it.
5/10
Watch trailer
This movie knows what it is, so it's constantly very self-aware. This, as always, can go both ways; it can make the movie very fun and entertaining to watch but it can also make a movie lame and almost tedious to watch. And to be honest, I'm starting to feel fed up with these self-aware and tongue in cheek horror flicks. Why can't horror movies be fun anymore without constantly having to wink into the camera, referencing other genre movies and clichés, while also deliberately, forcefully, exaggerating everything and be as crazy and silly with its concept as possible. Instead of this making the movie entertaining it makes the movie, more often than not, annoying to watch. It also pretty much ruined all of the horror aspects that a genre movie such as this still needs to have in it in order for it to work out as an engaging and effective one.
Needless to say that this movie never becomes a scary or even remotely tense one to watch. There is never a good buildup to anything and as I said before, it just simply wants to be as crazy as possible. Unfortunately not crazy in a very creative way as well. Everything is rather predictable due to the way how certain scenes and shots get set up. The horror purely relies on its gore, which still is pretty fun and impressive to watch at times but it's not anything that helps to make this a very good horror movie as well.
I liked how the movie wasn't a constant CGI-fest and I appreciate the fact that the movie was using mostly practical effects, which does make it odd though that the movie still made the choice to feature some pointless and fake looking CGI in it as well at certain parts. Give me some fake looking puppets and ketchup for blood over fake looking CGI effects any day of the week! It at least shows that you have been creative and put some serious time, love and effort into the making of your movie.
Normally I would complain about these movies being too long but in this case it feels far too short, strangely enough. It's around 90 minutes long but just when it starts to pick up some pace and starts to feature some good and fun moments in it, it's over again. Even though I wasn't liking the movie overall, I still felt disappointed with it ending as soon as it did, as contradictory as that may sound. Perhaps this also had to do with the fact that the movie wasn't really building up toward anything and the movie doesn't feature a big and tense or spectacular climax in it.
The lack of story is apparent, pretty much from the first minute on already. None of the characters feature any interesting arcs, there is no mystery and there is no clear goal. Because of this the movie can never buildup to anything, which results in it being a rather pointless and forgettable one to watch. It's also the type of movie that features as many characters and lines of dialog in it, just to fill the movie up with so that it isn't under an hour short, even if it doesn't add anything to the main story of it. Sure, because of that Lance Henriksen is in it as well and that's never a bad thing but this unfortunately also made the movie do some cheap Alien-movies knockoff moments that were too much of a distraction and felt too forced, without adding anything to the fun of the movie.
It's still better than the average modern genre attempt and it's not entirely without fun but it ultimately really is nothing more but a very forgettable and mostly ineffective killer animal movie, without any good horror in it.
5/10
Watch trailer
