Black Swarm

Black Swarm (2007)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Robert Englund plays a scientist who is hired by the government to create some wasps who they are going to use to kill terrorists. The only problem is that they have no way of controlling the wasps plus whoever they kill then turn into zombies. A new deputy in this small town doesn't think this is such a good idea so she plans to destroy the wasps no matter what it takes. This Canadian production is yet another entry in the unstoppable "nature runs amuck" series and I'm starting to realize that it's best to stay away from bees and wasps. THE DEADLY BEES is a deadly bore and everyone familiar with the genre remembers the disaster known as THE SWARM that was released with a big-budget and major stars. I think the closest this genre ever came to a good bee movie was THE BEES with John Carradine simply because it was so incredibly silly that you couldn't help but laugh and have a good time. BLACK SWARM really doesn't offer too many good things, although I'll admit that I thought the story was rather interesting but sadly nothing good is done with it. The thought of wasps stinging people and turning them into zombies could have been a good, fun movie but the filmmakers decided to take this silly plot and try to do something serious with it. The characters are all taking this thing way too serious and I think the filmmakers are too. There's nothing believable about the story and the reasons they come up with are just as silly. I think it really hurts a film like this when those making it don't realize they're dealing with camp. The CGI wasps don't look too bad but don't expect anyone to think they're the real thing. The attack scenes are all rather poor with some bad make up effects and some really silly sound effects. There are a few good things in the film and one is Englund who actually turns in a pretty good performance. I thought he was believable in the role and thought he had some terrific chemistry with the young actress Rebecca Windheim. The two are very good together and one wishes they had more scenes together. There's a required joke of some of the action taking place on Elm Street but outside of this there's very little going on here. It's a real shame too because there are enough interesting ideas here that should have at least given more entertainment to the viewers.