‘Get inside. Get away. Just don’t get…’
Stung is a 2015 American-German comedy horror film directed by Benni Diez (Galaxy of Horrors: “Kingz” segment). The cast includes Matt O´Leary (Santa Clarita Diet; Frailty; Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire), Jessica Cook, Peter Stormare and Lance Henriksen (Needlestick; Daylight’s End; Aliens; et al).
An XYZ Films production, Stung was developed by producer Benjamin Munz at Rat Pack Filmproduktion based on an idea by Adam Aresty, who won RatPack’s 2012 horror-writing contest. The film premiered on at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 17, 2015.
On 26 October 2015 Entertainment One released Stung on DVD in the UK.
Buy: Amazon.co.uk
Plot:
A fancy garden party goes terribly wrong after a local species of wasps mutate into giant predators. It’s up to Paul and Julia, two catering staffers at the high-society event, to stop the killer creatures – an effort that kickstarts a budding romance between the two…
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Reviews:
“It follows a very predictable path with familiar beats, even ending on a note that you’ll more than likely see coming. It’s an unfortunate misstep in an otherwise fantastic creature feature with awesome special effects and a lightning-quick story. Diez is an exciting new talent in the world of film and I can’t wait to see what he does next, especially with a wonderful debut like Stung leaving behind a particularly bloody mark.” Rhino’s Horror
” …aimed squarely at genre fans, who should enjoy its slick energy on a modest budget. The more original ideas and sensibility that might’ve made it something beyond a decent formulaic time-filler are lacking here — although with the narrative door left wide open for a sequel, such creative risks could be taken next time.” Dennis Harvey, Variety
“Stung suffers from some pretty poor CGI to begin with, but thankfully it doesn’t last too long. Once the wasp begin to bite people, leading to giant wasps ripping out of the bodies of the bitten, the practical effects swing into high gear and they all look really awesome. The scene with the first swarm attacking is really well done. Kudos to the makeup team led by Meike Gfrörer.” Chris Coffel, Bloody Disgusting
“Stung would have done itself a favor by leaning further in one direction over the other instead of tiptoeing on a tightrope between not tongue-in-cheek enough to be campy fun and not dramatic enough to be taken seriously. Needing more animation in its action and more charisma in its cast, Stung is only slick enough to be a standard killer bug movie with too slight of a humorous edge.” Culture Crypt
“Some “animal attack” movies are worth seeing solely for the scary bits, but Stung tries pretty hard to provide us with some engaging characters and a few funny moments before it unleashes its swarm of giant, furious wasps. That effort alone is worthy of note, and doubly so when it results in a comedy/horror/romance that actually delivers in all three departments.” Scott Weinberg, Nerdist
Cast and characters:
- Matt O’Leary as Paul
- Jessica Cook as Julia
- Lance Henriksen as Caruthers
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Sydney
- Cecilia Pillado as Flora
- Eve Slatner as Mrs. Perch
- Daniele Rizzo as Larry
- Florentine Lahme as Gweneth
- Kathleen Renish as Mrs. Markham
- Tony de Maeyer as Doc Withney
- David Masterson as Mr. Markham
- Benedikt Bothe as Gardener 1
- Tommy Kreiselmaier as Gardener 2
- Benni Diez as Firefighter
Filming locations:
Bernau, Brandenburg, Germany
