Movies
[Tribeca ’15 Review] ‘Stung’ Doesn’t Leave a Lingering Sting
Stung is not a good movie, but that’s not the problem. The problem is that it’s trying to be. I would be able to forgive the movie for being cheesy and terrible if it didn’t seem to want to be a better movie, but Stung takes itself far too seriously for a movie about giant killer wasps.
The film follows Julia (newcomer Jessica Cook) and Paul (Matt O’Leary, Sorority Row), two caterers who are on their way to work a job that will make or break their business. Their clients are Sydney Perch (Clifton Collins Jr.) and his mother, who are both a bit on the loopy side. Among the high profile guests at their event is the town mayor (Lance Henriksen, looking incredibly bored), who proves to be a useful member among the group of survivors following the initial wasp attack. From there the film follows the few survivors of the initial attack as they try to escape the house they’ve barricaded themselves in.
It’s not that Stung is a serious film (it is most definitely a horror comedy), but it does take itself very seriously. It thinks it’s a lot funnier than it is. Jokes fall flat so often that it became almost embarrassing to watch. A few of the jokes inspired chuckles from this reviewer, but they were few and far between.
All of the actors involved here look bored, with the possible exception of Cook. She is given more to do than anyone else in the cast (especially in the final act) and she does exude a charisma that is somewhat endearing. Everyone else just seems to be going through the motions. Collins Jr. and Henriksen look like (forgive the cliché) they wish they were in a different movie. O’Leary is alright as the male lead, but all he is asked to do is look tough and dote on Cook’s character.
Boredom is Stung’s biggest sin. It takes 20 minutes (in an 82 minute movie) for the first attack to even happen. Those first 20 minutes are filled with a lot of unnecessary exposition. Characters say things that would feel awkward coming out of anyone’s mouth just to provide a little backstory. It’s understandable in terms of character development, but after a while the film just starts beating us over the head with it. On top of all of this, few things in the film make much sense. For example, when the wasps attack for the first time, everyone just runs around in circles swatting at the air rather than running inside the house that’s 20 feet away.
The one saving grace the movie has is its practical effects. The wasps are created using poor (and I mean poor) CGI in the first act, but once the wasps start evolving, most of the close-up shots and gore effects refrain from using CGI. The initial attack by the wasp colony is littered with some nifty money shots, like a giant wasp emerging out of a woman’s face. Unfortunately to get to these moments we must suffer stiff acting, terrible attempts at humor and, worst of all, boredom.
Overall, Stung is a missed opportunity to make a killer wasp movie that stands out above the endless dreck that The Asylum and SyFy provides us. I’m not someone with incredibly high standards when it comes to creature features (it’s my second favorite sub-genre), which makes Stung a crushing disappointment. Skip it.
This week kicked off with the release of hippo horror movie Hungry at home, and four more horror movies have arrived for at-home viewing as we head into the final weekend of June.
Here are the new horror movies that released on Friday, June 26, 2026!
The Halloween season can no longer be contained to the months of September and October, with “Summerween” becoming a thing in recent years. Essentially, it allows for Halloween to bleed into the warmer Summer months, and the first ever Summerween movie has arrived.
The Asylum released Summerween onto Digital outlets today.
In the film from writer/director Ryan Ebert, “On Summerween, a former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there.”
Cole Chapleski, Chase Breithoff, Logan Roe, Sophia Sabol, and Clint Morrison star.
Director Ryan Ebert is the man behind a string of recent indie horrors we’ve covered, including Shark Side of the Moon, The Jolly Monkey, Jurassic Reborn, and Predator: Wastelands.
A witchy coming-of-age story from Dark Sky Films, Camp is now playing in select theaters.
Check your local listings to find a theater near you.
Camp is from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, The Serpent’s Skin).
“Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness.
“As Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.”
The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum have joined forces for Peacock Original Strung.
The film is now streaming only on Peacock.
“A talented violinist takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity.”
Malcolm D. Lee (Scary Movie 5, Space Jam: A New Legacy) directs from a script written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers).
Chloe Bailey (“Swarm“), Lynn Whitfield (Jaws: The Revenge), Lucien Laviscount (“Scream Queens”), Anna Diop (Us), Coco Jones (Vampires vs. the Bronx), Langley Kirkwood (“Banshee”), and Romy Woods star in Peacock’s Strung.
Produced by Diablo Cody, director Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits brought a new coven of witches to the big screen earlier this year, and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Tragedy Girls), Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), and Emma Chamberlain star in Forbidden Fruits, released by IFC and Shudder.
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges the group’s ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Diablo Cody said. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Forbidden Fruits may not necessarily forge new terrain in the teen satire space, but Alloway brings so much style and energy to her well-cast single-location stage play adaptation for the Gen Z crowd.”
The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton co-adapted.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by HUNGRY.
All aboard the swamp tour from hell – this hippo isn’t playing games…
HUNGRY is now available on Digital. Watch it now!
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