Black Swarm (2007)

Powerful

Best movie ever!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A small town is overrun by wasps that not only sting, but actually infest themselves inside of human hosts...I appreciate that Robert Englund not only appears -- and for much more than a cameo -- but is actually given a decent character. This film is nothing amazing, but Englund treated it with respect and he comes across as both devious and mysterious, while still likable.This film has some issues with continuity -- for example, the question of who is dead. Twice the sheriff seems to be aware that people are dead without having actually witnessed the scenes we (the viewers) saw. Just because it happens earlier in the script does not mean all the characters suddenly are aware of it.Even more odd is the relationship issue -- a woman dates a guy, leaves him for his identical twin brother... the second brother dies and she is again interested in the first. Dating brothers is awkward enough... this just steps it up to a new level. (And unless Sarah Allen ages really, really well, she seems too young to have a 10-year old daughter.)

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

Black Swarm is set in the small New York state town of Black Stone where Deputy Sheriff Jane Kozik (Sarah Allen) & her ten year old daughter Kelsey (Rebecca Windheim) have just moved to, the first day on the job & Deputy Sheriff Kozik has the dead body of a vagrant to deal with having been found stung to death. The autopsy suggests no type of known Wasp could have been responsible, then strangely the body disappears & people around town start acting like mindless zombies (insert your own joke). Sheriff Kozok teams up with pest control expert & twin brother of her late husband Devin Hall (Sebastien Roberts) to save the town & figure out just what these killer Wasp's actually are & where they came from...This Candian produced 'Creature Feature' was directed by David Winning & not wishing to put too finer a point on it Black Swarm is awful. Right, all the usual 'Creature Feature' clichés are here from the Deputy Sheriff character (or someone in authority) to the local hero who both end up falling in love & have a romance to the mutant creature of some description that has been altered by genetics for use by the military as a weapon (two older than dirt 'Creature Feature' clichés there). The script sucks, didn't the army ever give any thought to what they were going to do with these Wasp's or how they were going to control them? Isn't that a slight oversight? Why are they conducting experiments in a small town? How did the Wasp's turn people into zombies & control them? What happened to those people when the hive was blown up at the end? Why did someone 'explode' into a swarm of Wasp's? Did the makers just make this up as they went along? Were large chunks of exposition cut? Did Black swarm even make sense as a written script? Why is it so boring & predictable? Why is it almost totally devoid of any action, incident or horror? Why does it take itself so seriously? Why is the ending so lame? Why did the Wasp's just let Devin take Kelsey? Why didn't the helicopters fire while they were in the building & only just after they escaped? Where did the helicopters disappear to anyway? Why at only 90 odd minutes does Black swarm feel like it goes on for hours? Black swarm is nothing more than the usual boring 'Creature Feature' clichés recycled again & adds nothing new of it's own & even worse is boring & predictable & totally forgettable.This looks alright with a reasonable made-for-telly look about it, there's nothing stylish here or scary or funny or atmospheric & the Wasp action is kept to an absolute minimum throughout. Some of the CGI computer effects aren't as bad as expected but still not worth writing home about. There's zero blood or gore or violence or action which doesn't help maintain flagging interest levels.The IMDb reckons Black Swarm had a budget of about $2,000,000 which I can't believe since virtually nothing happens, I would struggle to say this had half that sort of money spent on it. Although set in New York this was filmed in Montréal in Québec in Canada. The acting doesn't stand out while king of the horror film cameo Robert Englund adds another to his long list here.Black Swarm is another terrible 'Creature Feature' that isn't gory or self aware enough to be fun, even the creature here is dull & have been used in these types of films all to often. Die hard 'Creature Feature' fans might like to check it out but anyone else should steer well clear.

I guess good advice in regards to 'Black Swarm,' is not to watch the trailer first as it gives away too many spoilers. Okay, the best advice is just to simply avoid the movie at all costs. The "when animals attack" film, like so many other b-movies, tries to be too many things and ultimately falls apart. Those unfortunate enough like me to waste time on such filth will see: part 'Aliens,' part 'Day of the Dead,' part 'Empire of the Ants' and any "government's secret weapon runs amok" movie. It's frivolous to attack any of its hundreds of flaws, inconsistencies or even the little girl that laughs and smiles at inappropriate times. It is a b-movie about killer wasps that fear the fruit after all, but with lines like "Maybe it's playing hive and seek," good cops that threaten to kill at will and scenes stolen from much better movies – think Newt's dilemma in 'Aliens' – it's hard not to simply hate any effort produced here. Perhaps it is a good drunk movie, as so many scenes make you laugh out loud, such as a "shocking" revelation in the closing by the two stars while aimless Robert Englund stands around. One of my favorite flaws (and yes spoiler ahead) was the quick and almost immediately forgotten death of the beloved blind "B" woman who previously attempted to protect the young girl with a perfectly sized raincoat she happened to have. Then, when it was never revealed to her mother the blind woman got it, her mother seemed to know. I'm getting tired of at least acknowledging one's efforts, even with a low budget. "At least they attempted to make a movie." Well, Marlboro also attempts to make a quality cigarette. And we all know how that ends up.