News
EXCLUSIVE: Director of “Stung” was influenced by James Cameron
Horror gets a new creature this month. Benni Diez’s “Stung,” now available on VOD, is a new take on an old concept: nature’s most terrifying creatures grow to thousands of times their own size.
[iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/QnYXxqmQc0c”]
This time, picnic pests with stingers are the altered beasts, and a catering company led by an exasperated waiter (Clifton Collins Jr.) must defend himself and guests from the venomous flying gargantuans.
Director Benni Diez talked with iHorror about the movie, his inspiration and what audiences can expect.
The inspiration for “Stung” was actually based on true events, somewhat. Screenwriter Adam Aresty was employed at a catering company, where he experienced a nasty swarm of bees.
The elitist clients were so annoying that Aresty began to fantasize about the insects becoming large enough to attack them on a human-sized scale. The writer’s love for monster movies inspired him to sit down and bring the fantasy to life on paper.
After reading the screenplay, Diez loved the idea and decided to bring the concept to film.
Diez wants people to watch the film and be amazed at what they are witnessing. The director says that James Cameron was a big influence and he wanted to bring that suspense to “Stung,”
“I watched Aliens and the Terminator movies at a very young age, too young probably, and my brain almost couldn’t handle what I was seeing there. I guess that’s one thing that drives me, trying to induce that feeling in an audience, to make them think ‘holy shit, I can’t believe what I’m seeing right now’ – hopefully in a good way of course,” he said.
Unlike the paltry budgeted laughable creature features so often played on genre networks such as SyFy, Diez says he knows that human-sized wasps are a gamble to viewers sensibilities. But he thinks that his cast was key in making “Stung” more than a 90-minute parody,
“There’s a balance you need to keep,” he said. “If you play it too straight, the characters will seem ridiculous, if you poke too much fun at it, their emotional believability suffers. I owe it to our great actors that I think we found a way to be funny in the face of insanity that lets you root for them even more.”
One of those actors, Lance Henriksen (Terminator, Aliens) kept the atmosphere on the set comical. Diez recalls a time when the actor made the whole crew laugh,
“We had such a blast on set all the time. But one of the most hilarious moments was when Lance Henriksen, while we all had lunch break, winked at Ulrik, our stunt trainer, who was still wearing a woman’s dress from a panic scene we had been shooting, and slipped him a napkin with his phone number on it.”
Although the concept of “Stung,” giant wasps invading a wealthy catering event, would appear to contain less-than-extravagant special effects and shoddy patchwork rendering, Diez decided to use a majority of real-time creatures created by some of the best in the business.
“The practical creature effects were done by Design Of Illusion, a Berlin based company run by Martin Schäper. They had over a dozen artists work day and night for so many months to accomplish the many puppets, animatronics and gore effects. All the full CG creatures and the countless other digital effects were created by an in-house team of artists lead by my longtime collaborators Peter Hacker and Sebastian Nozon. I’ve lost count of how many times those guys saved our asses in what became almost a year of intense post production. The third and equally important effects category is our sound design. Tilman Hahn, our lead sound designer, spent months recording and editing an insane variety of real life sounds to give the wasps character and make them as menacing as they are.”
As for gore, Diez says there is plenty of it. Every ounce of budget that could be used for make-up and creature effects was poured into filming. The director has a love for fans and he wasn’t going to disappoint them with “Stung.” In fact, he was going to sit there and watch it with them over and over again:
“I think many genre fans will be delighted with some of the disgusting ideas we came up with,” he said. “Many filmmakers tend to leave the theater at screenings of their own films because they’ve just seen them a million times, but I still enjoy sitting through, just because it’s such a blast to hear the audience squirm and giggle at the screen. That’s what we should make movies for, after all.”
Diez is hard at work finding his place in the realm of motion pictures. He seems to be getting his hands dirty in all departments, including continuing “Stung” as a possible franchise:
“I am developing a few genre projects with our producer Ben Munz, hoping that one of them might turn into a movie in the near future,” he said. “Other than that I still do occasional visual effects work, and I’m flexing my writing muscles as much as I can. And of course there have been talks about potential Stung sequels, but that depends on how this one is received. Times are definitely not boring right now!”
Within the bold realm of Mother Nature there are plenty of opportunities to explore her monsters. “Stung” captures one these creatures and gives them human-sized thoraxes equipped with needle precise stingers.
What separates this movie from the others within the same concept, is a director’s ambition to not only get it right with the genre audience, but have the stingers firmly planted in cheek while doing so.
“Stung” is now available on VOD. Check you streaming device for details.
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
News
Watch ‘The Burning’ At The Location Where It Was Filmed
Fangoria is reporting that fans of the 1981 slasher The Burning will be able to have a screening of the film at the location where it was filmed. The movie is set at Camp Blackfoot which is actually the Stonehaven Nature Preserve in Ransomville, New York.
This ticketed event will take place on August 3. Guests will be able to take a tour of the grounds as well as enjoy some campfire snacks along with the screening of The Burning.
The film came out in the early ’80s when teen slashers were being churned out in magnum force. Thanks to Sean S. Cunningham’s Friday the 13th, filmmakers wanted to get in on the low-budget, high-profit movie market and a casket load of these types of films were produced, some better than others.
The Burning is one of the good ones, mostly because of the special effects from Tom Savini who had just come off of his groundbreaking work on Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th. He declined to do the sequel because of its illogical premise and instead signed on to do this movie. Also, a young Jason Alexander who would later go on to play George in Seinfeld is a featured player.
Because of its practical gore, The Burning had to be heavily edited before it received an R-rating. The MPAA was under the thumb of protest groups and political bigwigs to censor violent films at the time because slashers were just so graphic and detailed in their gore.
Tickets are $50, and if you want a special t-shirt, that will cost you another $25, You can get all the information by visiting the On Set Cinema webpage.
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
Movies
‘Longlegs’ Creepy “Part 2” Teaser Appears on Instagram
Neon Films released an Insta-teaser for their horror film Longlegs today. Titled Dirty: Part 2, the clip only furthers the mystery of what we are in for when this movie is finally released on July 12.
The official logline is: FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.
Directed by former actor Oz Perkins who also gave us The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs is already creating buzz with its moody images and cryptic hints. The film is rated R for bloody violence, and disturbing images.
Longlegs stars Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, and Alicia Witt.
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
News
Exclusive Sneak Peek: Eli Roth and Crypt TV’s VR Series ‘The Faceless Lady’ Episode Five
Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) and Crypt TV are knocking it out of the park with their new VR show, The Faceless Lady. For those unaware, this is the first fully scripted VR horror show on the market.
Even for masters of horror like Eli Roth and Crypt TV, this is a monumental undertaking. However, if I trust anyone to change the way that we experience horror, it would be these two legends.
Ripped from the pages of Irish folklore, The Faceless Lady tells the story of a tragic spirit cursed to wander the halls of her castle for all of eternity. However, when three young couples are invited to the castle for a series of games, their fates may soon change.
So far, the story has provided horror fans with a gripping game of life or death that doesn’t look as if it will slow down in episode five. Luckily, we have an exclusive clip that may be able to satiate your appetites until the new premiere.
Airing on 4/25 at 5pmPT/8pmET, episode five follows our final three contestants in this wicked game. As the stakes are raised ever higher, will Ella be able to fully awaken her connection with Lady Margaret?
The newest episode can be found on Meta Quest TV. If you haven’t already, follow this link to subscribe to the series. Make sure to check out the new clip below.
Eli Roth Present’s THE FACELESS LADY S1E5 Clip: THE DUEL – YouTube
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
-
News7 days ago
Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers
-
News6 days ago
Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role
-
Strange and Unusual6 days ago
Man Arrested for Allegedly Taking a Severed Leg From Crash Site And Eating It
-
Movies7 days ago
Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released
-
Movies7 days ago
Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month
-
Editorial6 days ago
7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch
-
Movies5 days ago
Spider-Man With a Cronenberg Twist in This Fan-Made Short
-
News4 days ago
Original Blair Witch Cast Ask Lionsgate for Retroactive Residuals in Light of New Film
You must be logged in to post a comment Login