The Return of the Living Dead (1985, dir. Dan O'Bannon) vs. Stung (2015, dir. Benni Diez)
The Return of the Living Dead
Stung
I know neither of these
Voting ended onSep 27, 2023
Propaganda under the cut. (cw bugs, animal harm)
The Return of the Living Dead
They're Back From The Grave and Ready To Party!
"So many good moments! The tar man's design in general, the fact the zombies can feel themselves rot, the split in half dog, the unsettling cadaver, etc. A banger all around. But really i cannot empathize enough how much i love the tar man's design. So cool"
Stung
The ultimate buzzkill.
"THIS MOVIE WAS MOSTLY PRACTICAL EFFECTS !! And people get turned into/big ol bugs hatch out of people and it’s awesome, specifically at one point a lady turns into one and you still see her skin/face stuck to it"
Creature features are like candy to me, they often taste like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, a fine combination of processed familiar shit that I’ve been eating since childhood and absolute enjoyment. So it wasn’t a surprise to me when I found myself enjoying Stung (2015). What was a surprise is how damn good of a movie it was, despite my creature feature biases. As a lifelong horror fan, I’m allowed to be hyperbolic when it comes to my favorite genre, but I’m also able to calm myself down and examine its flaws when necessary. However, for this review I’m just going to gush, because Stung is near absolute comedy/horror perfection. Should you stream it? FUCK YES!
With a run time of an hour and thirty minutes, and a rating of R, Stung (2015) was Directed by Benni Diez, and written by Adam Aresty. It stars Matt O’Leary (Paul), Jessica Cook (Julia), Lance ‘Fucking’ Henriksen (Caruthers), and Clifton Collins Jr. (Sydney).
Our flick starts off with Julia and Paul on their way to a social event that they’ll be working. The two of them work for a catering company called: Country Catering, appropriate, since they’ll be catering in the country…
The scenery reminds me of where I spent some of my childhood, in the open farm country of central Pennsylvania, full of paved roads that aren’t actually paved.
We find out that a lot is riding on the success of this event, Julia has recently taken over the business and if things don’t work out in cow country, then it’s back to the drawing board and admitting that she failed her deceased father’s business.
Well, lucky for her, the event seems to go pretty decent. Momma’s boy Sydney who lives with his elderly mother in what looks like the house from the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, celebrates in an annual remembrance of his dead father. So, mainly having to please a bunch of golden oldies, there’s very little that could go wrong…that is until…
Wasps are dicks. They really serve no purpose in life other than to be completely fucking obnoxious. They turn caterpillars into zombie incubators until they kill the caterpillars completely just to birth their young. Like, have babies on your own, assholes.
They do the same to cockroaches. They inject venom into their brains a la Jeffrey Dahmer. Then they perform brain surgery so that the cockroach loses its free will in order to take the cockroach to their burrow to use them as baby food.
Wasps. Nature’s very first one-minute men, (wasps take only one minute to mate…but that’s the only thing I have in common with them) and in that little sixty seconds they’re able to infect dozens of cockroaches with their young!
Actually, they do serve a small purpose. Apparently wasps are so good at pest control that farmers release them to deal with pest problems. But I still think they’re assholes.
Learn more from the geniuses at National Geographic. They know more about bugs than I do. Yes, please. Cause I’m definitely on this site to learn about Wasps.
Anyway, suddenly, out of nowhere, CHIHUAHUAS ATTACK!
Just kidding, this is a review about a movie called Stung, so of course there’s a reason I went into a diatribe about wasps. But I would love to someday see someone make a horror movie about killer chihuahuas, just sayin’.
Wasps that look like they’re right out of a Roger Corman film attack the social event, stinging, impregnating, making people shit their pants, causing everyone to find shelter before they’re preggo with creepy wasp babies in their defecated pants…you get the idea.
One of the spinsters of the party literally erupts with a giant wasp as its legs force their way out of her mouth and just tear her the fuck in half while tiny wasps are flying up her skirt in a violent frenzy. It’s glorious. This special scene puts you in your place if you had any prior doubts of its excellence. The effects here are brilliant, mixing practical effects with digital ingeniously.
Making their way into the house to escape the swarm, Julia, Paul, Sydney, Caruthers, and a few others are safe…for now.
Wanna know what’s next? Well, I’m not going to ruin too much more for you. It’s currently streaming on Amazon for $3.99, so check it out!
Consistently ramping up the insanity and gore, our few survivors are put through the comedy/horror meat grinder with satisfying results. Hell, there’s even a queen wasp boss fight towards the end that momentarily departs into some weird interspecies sex talks, what more could you ask for? How about a cow wasp, or a killer poodle wasp? Yeah, it’s got that too (not a chihuahua, but close enough).
There’s an underlying theme in this movie that deals with the consequences of succumbing to the depression of paternal loss and the benefits of fighting to live beyond their guidance. It’s an interesting duality that conflicts well between the two characters expressing each idea throughout the film. However, you can ignore all that if you’d like to. It’s nice that there’s something to chew on beneath the surface, but the surface is just so damn fun that you could just shut off your brain box and enjoy the buzz.
This film is as gory as it is bonkers, if you’re into films like Slither (2006), you’re going to love this as much as I do. I give this film 9/10 rapist wasps! You should stream it ASAW (As Soon As Waspossible).
