Black Swarm (2007)

A lot of fun.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Usually I try to be generous with my ratings and encouraging with my comments, but I have come across movies that are so bad and make you so angry that they aren't deserving of either. Black Swarm is one such movie. To start with, it is choppily edited with dull lighting and scenery and poor if not quite atrocious effects. I have come across worse acting, but these actors still seem largely uninvolved with their characters and don't deliver their lines with anywhere near enough passion and care about what's happening to them. The music is generic and you don't remember any of it afterwards, while the wasps are lacking in menace and the attacks are done with a great deal of predictability and no real sense of horror or suspense. The script, story and characters are the worst assets. The dialogue is just terrible, full of cheesy lines, stilted delivery, no sense of logic and everything just feels aimless. The story is thin and very predictable, with an unatmospheric and abrupt climax and no explanation as to the wasps' control. In regard to the characters, I don't mind if they are clichéd, but they have to be likable and well-written to make me not care about that and just empathise with the character. The characters aren't just clichéd, they are undeveloped and annoying and I found myself not only not caring for any one of them but actually shouting at the screen at the countless times a character did something dumb, and these ladies and gentlemen are simple common sense things that you should've already learnt at five years old that they get so wrong here. Pacing is also an issue, because the story is so thin in structure already Black Swarm does become tedious to watch. Overall, it is difficult to begin criticising Black Swarm as everything imaginable was wrong with it. 1/10 Bethany Cox

I can often tolerate, even enjoy a poorly made movie if it's at least plausible. But at so many moments in this film you were left wondering "who the hell would do that ??"Why would a mother leave her daughter in the care of a complete stranger ? A stranger who has a secret laboratory under his mobile home nonetheless. Most of the acting is really not horrible in comparison to other low budget movies, it's the story and the dialog that is just pitiful.I am simply amazed that this movie ever got made.You have been warned, your time spent watching this will be wasted.

Decent "when insects attack" sci-fi horror has genetically modified weaponized killer wasps(created by scientist Robert Englund who "tweaked the wasp genome" turning their defensive mechanism of protecting the colony into an offense operating by instinct when attacking humans entering their bodies and turning them into zombie-like drones)on the rampage in a tiny town in Black Stone, New York as pest control exterminator Devin Hall(Sebastien Roberts), former flame deputy sheriff, Jane Kozik(Sarah Allen), and Jane's daughter Kelsey(Rebecca Windheim)trying to avoid being victims of the swarm. Englund's scientist Eli Giles is attempting to uncover a means to control the wasps from attacking everyone in sight, knowing that the black ops organization behind his experiment are out to get him. Entomologist Katherine Randell(Jayne Keitmeyer)comes to Black Stone seemingly to help figure out what would cause strange welts on a dead struggling musician(who kills the town's coroner at the command of the wasps), but her true motives are later revealed and it involves Eli's work. Kelsey eats from a peach injected with pheromones by Eli and this has the wasps considering her their queen! The special effects involving the wasps actually aren't as bad as I was expecting and BLACK SWARM has a rare hero role from Englund who bonds with Kelsey, even saving her from a hive. We see insects coming out of the ears of human victims and there are welts throughout their faces which signify the presence of the wasps inside them. You could do worse with a killer wasps movie than this. Like many other bio-weapon governmental genetic engineering plots, the wasps were created as a military tool against the enemy, of course the mad science instead gives birth to an out-of-control terror. Eli wants to correct his mistake of creating these wasps by working on a device to control them while those that hired him wish to kill the scientist.

Probably the filmmakers tried to convey a decent story on rabid bees(or wasps whatever) that attack humans but the effort was absolutely disappointing. Average special effects and unbelievable, unconvincing or silly scenes spoil the complete picture and therefore any fair performances the actors came up with was of no use anyway. The attacks by the wasps could have been treated better - or should I say with more horror! Probably the only impressive performance is of the blind, elderly character essayed by Sheena Larkin. Actor Robert Englund best known for Nightmare on Elm street is forgettable here. This is one sting that induces more laughter than hurt!