Black Swarm (2007)

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.

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 think that it was a very good movie and I would like to get it on DVD. I was watching it las night and I would like to see it again..... WHERE CAN I BUY IT!!!!!!!!!! There was very good sound and it looked very real. I loved how everyone played there parts. I wish I would have taped it so I could see it right now. Any way if anyone know where I can get this movie please let me know. I could watch this movie over and over again, it is a must have. My kids even loves it and would like to see it again. If it is not going to be on DVD anytime soon, than I hope they put it back on sci-fi again.I hope to see it again real soon. Thank you I have been wanting on a good movie like this.

I couldn't recommend renting this movie, unless it is a choice between this and some of the real garbage out there. It is definitely a formula science fiction movie, very predictable in every detail, about monster wasps.I would hate to spoil the movie, but suffice to say, nothing will surprise you.So why not a real low grade? First, there are enough likable characters. It suffers from some lame actresses, namely the police woman and the bad woman. One day, those who do the casting will realize that even men would rather see actresses than hourglass figures. We can go to the porn shop for hourglass figures, thank you. When we see a movie, we want a story that isn't slowed down by hams.Part of it is some meager, lazy writing, however.Still, the people in the movie have some appeal and credibility, which keeps you moderately interested in this routine plot. It helps, too, that there aren't a lot of video game special effects to confuse you. Instead, there is a logical, easy to follow story (at least easy to follow in comparison to most science fiction).The twin brother character doesn't hold the movie back. It doesn't add a lot, but it falls into the mold of "unusual circumstance which isn't unusual since every circumstance has one or two unusual ingredients".Probably Englund's best film, which is saying very little. Certainly one of his better roles. It isn't a great film by any means. I don't see it being considered a horrible movie, either.I would expect this film to get 90% of the ratings from 3 to 7. Anything over and under would seem to be a vote for ulterior motives.