Writer: Adam Aresty
Director: Benni Diez
The Ultimate Buzzkill
Wasps are evil creatures. Especially giant, mutant, parasitic wasps created by fertiliser with added Trioxin (though not the 245 variety). Perfect critters for a monster movie.
Stung, classified as a comedy, revolves around caterers Paul (Matt O’Leary) and Julia (Jessica Cook) who are heading to a party at a large country house. We’re introduced to them travelling in their van and immediately Paul starts with crude dialogue. The script also manages to contrive to have Julia remove her top within the first five minutes.
Arriving at the house, the pair set up for the party. We then have to endure another 20 minutes of Paul being ‘wacky’ and not funny. It’s a very painful experience.
So far so dire. But then the killer wasps arrive and they’re surprisingly well done. Paul gets toned down and the movie turns into a very watchable, light-hearted creature feature. It’s by the numbers but it works. The giant wasps are very well done and suitably unpleasant. The support cast do a good job, especially the ever watchable Lance Henriksen.
There’s also some decent character development for Paul and his relationship with Julia, unfortunately by that point I didn’t care; I just wanted to see him skewered.
Stung would have been so much better without Paul. That’s not O’Leary’s fault, just the way the character was (over) written. If you’re going to watch this film I suggest skipping the first 20 minutes.