Stung (2015 film): Difference between revisions
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==Genre and influences== |
==Genre and influences== |
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| ⚫ | Benni Diez cited classic horror films like ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' and ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' as influences, going so far as to say the "whole film is an homage to films like that".<ref name="Robinson" /> Robinson pointed out that the film has the atmosphere of 1950s [[creature feature]]s, "and the humor is very much up to the moment in terms of camp."<ref name="Robinson" /> Agreeing, Diez referenced ''[[Them!]]'' (1954), a giant-ant movie, "and other really old black-and-white movies" where the filmmakers did not care about [[photo-realism]], but rather asked, "What's the psychology behind a menacing monster attack? What are the middle layers between? What does this do to people?"<ref name="Robinson" /> Those old American monster movies were what drew Diez to Adam Arresty's script to begin with: "it's a kind of genre where I thought there are way too few movies of that kind that are—you know, that are old-school creature movies that leave you with a fun feeling when you get out of the theater."<ref name="Buckley">{{cite web |last1=Buckley |first1=Heather (interviewer) |title=Exclusive: Director Benni Diez Talks Stung’s Cast, Influences, Road to Directing, and More |url=https://www.dreadcentral.com/news/110724/exclusive-director-benni-diez-talks-stungs-cast-influences-road-to-directing-and-more/ |website=[[Dread Central]] |accessdate=4 November 2019 |date=July 6, 2015}}</ref> According to Diez, the questions he and his colleagues as modern [[independent film]]makers were asking was:<blockquote>"How can we try to put an indie-movie sensibility into this classic monster drama, and create characters that you believe, because they're very down to earth?" ''Stung'' isn't really [[mumblecore]], but it's borderline sometimes. We put those kind of characters into monster situations and then just see what happens. And hopefully, people get emotionally involved because of it.<ref name="Robinson" /></blockquote> |
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| ⚫ | Reviewers such as Andy Webster<ref name="Webster">{{cite news |last1=Webster |first1=Andy |title=Review: ‘Stung’ Stars Giant Wasps That Attack the Rich |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/movies/review-stung-stars-giant-wasps-that-attack-the-rich.html |accessdate=4 November 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 2, 2015}}</ref> and Dennis Harvey, who notes that the film's giant wasps are in fact attacking [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant|WASP]]s, |
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| ⚫ | Reviewers such as Andy Webster<ref name="Webster">{{cite news |last1=Webster |first1=Andy |title=Review: ‘Stung’ Stars Giant Wasps That Attack the Rich |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/movies/review-stung-stars-giant-wasps-that-attack-the-rich.html |accessdate=4 November 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 2, 2015}}</ref> and Dennis Harvey, who notes that the film's giant wasps are in fact attacking [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant|WASP]]s, recognize that ''Stung'' is also a "horror-comedy"<ref name="Harvey">{{cite journal |last1=Harvey |first1=Dennis |title=Film Review: ‘Stung’ Garden-partying WASPs get attacked by an aggressive swarm of mutant actual wasps in this English-language German horror-comedy. |journal=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=July 15, 2015 |url=https://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/stung-review-1201540431/ |accessdate=4 November 2019}}</ref> Diez cites comedic and satirical horror films such as ''[[Tremors (film)|Tremors]]'', [[Gremlins (film)|Gremlins]], and [[Slither (film)|Slither]] as additional influences: "we didn't want to play it too seriously because when you ask the audience to buy into human-sized wasps attacking people, you have to wink once in a while and make a little bit of fun of it."<ref name="Buckley" /> |
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| ⚫ | Benni Diez cited classic horror films like ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' and ''[[Aliens (film)|Aliens]]'' as influences, going so far as to say the "whole film is an homage to films like that".<ref name="Robinson" /> Robinson pointed out that the film has the atmosphere of 1950s [[creature feature]]s, "and the humor is very much up to the moment in terms of camp."<ref name="Robinson" /> Agreeing, Diez referenced ''[[Them!]]'' (1954), a giant-ant movie, "and other really old black-and-white movies" where the filmmakers did not care about [[photo-realism]], but rather asked, "What's the psychology behind a menacing monster attack? What are the middle layers between? What does this do to people?"<ref name="Robinson" /> According to Diez, |
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Tasha Robinson remarks that while ''Stung'' is "a silly horror film about giant mutant killer wasps," it is also, at times, "a surprisingly sincere romance." In her interview with Benni Diez, he acknowledged that an early "elevator pitch" for the movie was ''[[Garden State (film)|Garden State]]'' vs. ''Aliens'': "We just wanted to have those two genres clash, to see what happens. And it's what we did. Besides, we had to spend a little time without effects just to afford 90 minutes of film on our budget."<ref name="Robinson">{{cite web |last1=Robinson |first1=Tasha (interviewer) |title=Benni Diez on Stung's tender romance and messy giant mutant wasps |url=https://thedissolve.com/news/5509-benni-diez-on-the-messy-giant-mutant-wasps-and-ten/ |website=[[The Dissolve]] |accessdate=4 November 2019 |date=April 24, 2015}}</ref> |
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==Production== |
==Production== |
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===Background, writing, and financing=== |
===Background, writing, and financing=== |
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Adam Arresty said his story was inspired by a period when his life was shut down by a wasp attack.<ref name="Robinson" /> In the Robinson interview, Benni Diez said his manager sent him Arresty's script and he loved it. Diez called Arresty and found they had the same tastes in movies and sense of humor:<blockquote>I knew if I was ever going to do a feature film, this was going to be my first, because it's just perfect. It has every element I love about drama. It has the scope where I would dare start really directing actors. Because it's not an ensemble with a dozen characters that have a lot of nuance, it's very compact.<ref name="Robinson" /></blockquote> |
Adam Arresty said his story was inspired by a period when his life was shut down by a wasp attack.<ref name="Robinson" /> In the Robinson interview, Benni Diez said his manager sent him Arresty's script and he loved it. In another interview, Diez said the script "called to me on a few very profound levels, mainly to my inner child that watched ''Alien'' way too young and got messed up in the brain by it a little bit."<ref name="Buckley" /> Diez called Arresty and found they had the same tastes in movies and sense of humor:<blockquote>I knew if I was ever going to do a feature film, this was going to be my first, because it's just perfect. It has every element I love about drama. It has the scope where I would dare start really directing actors. Because it's not an ensemble with a dozen characters that have a lot of nuance, it's very compact.<ref name="Robinson" /></blockquote> |
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In 2012, |
Diez was excited to work on it, and "luckily enough" a friend worked at a production company.<ref name="Buckley" /> In 2012, Diez shot a 90-second [[teaser trailer]] for ''Stung'' "for a couple of bucks" to convince people he could create giant wasps of "sufficient quality", which lead to the feature being financed as a German-American co-production.<ref name="Logan" /><ref name="BD">{{cite web |title=Bio |url=http://www.bennidiez.com/bio/ |website=bennidiez.com |accessdate=4 November 2019}}</ref> In this respect, his background in [[visual effects]] (he has a diploma in visual effects and [[animation]] from the [[Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg|Baden-Württemberg Film Academy]]) "helped a lot with financing".<ref name="Logan" /><blockquote> The film was financed through pre-sales around a year before the shoot... At that point crowd funding was discussed, but quickly abandoned, I guess because it would have been more work to handle the campaign than it would have helped the production. Also it sends a weird message to audiences if you already have a significant chunk of money and then go out and ask them for more. In my opinion at least.<ref name="Logan" /></blockquote> |
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[[File:Lance Henriksen cropped.jpg|thumb|100px|[[Lance Henriksen]]]] |
[[File:Lance Henriksen cropped.jpg|thumb|100px|[[Lance Henriksen]]]] |
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For Diez, as this was his first feature film, it was a "real challenge" working with experienced actors and creating believable characters with them, even on such a "fairly small scale" such as in a low budget film, but it turned out to be "a mind blowing experience".<ref name="Logan" /> |
For Diez, as this was his first feature film, it was a "real challenge" working with experienced actors and creating believable characters with them, even on such a "fairly small scale" such as in a low budget film, but it turned out to be "a mind blowing experience".<ref name="Logan" /> |
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| quote = I know for actors oftentimes they are frustrated about playing against tennis balls. For me, as a director, as well, it's way more interesting and fun to have puppets on the set; it means you can actually direct physically—like an actor, basically. There's much more humanity and life behind it. Even a wobbly rubber puppet sometimes is more effective in terms of conveying emotion than the best CG creature because the difference is when you do a CG creature... it gets so clinical. It ends up being too smooth; you miss the tiny accidents that happen on-set. You know, when you just say, "Jump a little bit harder, make it a little bit more aggressive." ... It's much more natural when you have things on set. And... it's way more fun... they're covered in slime and artificial blood. It's like kids in a toy store. We were always laughing really hard when we shot those scenes. |
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| source = Benni Diez<ref name="Buckley" /> |
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===Filming and visual effects=== |
===Filming and visual effects=== |
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''Stung'' was shot on two [[Arri Alexa]] cameras with Hawke [[anamorphic lens]]es, Diez and his [[cinematographer]] Stephan Burchardt insisting on quality lenses with a view to achieving "a nice cinematic and timeless look."<ref name="Logan" /> Some [[greenscreen]] scenes were shot on [[Red Digital Cinema|Red]].<ref name="Logan" /> |
''Stung'' was shot on two [[Arri Alexa]] cameras with Hawke [[anamorphic lens]]es, Diez and his [[cinematographer]] Stephan Burchardt insisting on quality lenses with a view to achieving "a nice cinematic and timeless look."<ref name="Logan" /> Some [[greenscreen]] scenes were shot on [[Red Digital Cinema|Red]].<ref name="Logan" /> |
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Benni Diez has an established background in [[visual effects]].<ref name="Logan" /> He could not say what percentage of the effects in ''Stung'' were practical versus [[computer graphics|CG]] as sometimes both were "combined in one shot", though they tried to do as little CG as possible but "ended up with more CG than planned" due to the short amount of time available for [[principal photography]].<ref name="Robinson" /> Broadly speaking, the bodies of the wasps and close-ups are real, while the wings and more distant shots are CG, "because you can't wire-control the bodies any more, because then you would see the puppeteer."<ref name="Robinson" /> |
Benni Diez has an established background in [[visual effects]].<ref name="Buckley" /><ref name="Logan" /> He could not say what percentage of the effects in ''Stung'' were practical versus [[computer graphics|CG]] as sometimes both were "combined in one shot", though they tried to do as little CG as possible but "ended up with more CG than planned" due to the short amount of time available for [[principal photography]].<ref name="Robinson" /> Broadly speaking, the bodies of the wasps and close-ups are real, while the wings and more distant shots are CG, "because you can't wire-control the bodies any more, because then you would see the puppeteer."<ref name="Robinson" /> |
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===Editing=== |
===Editing=== |
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Revision as of 16:14, 4 November 2019
| Stung | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Benni Diez |
| Written by | Adam Aresty |
| Produced by | Christian Becker Benjamin Munz |
| Starring | Matt O'Leary Jessica Cook Lance Henriksen Clifton Collins Jr. Cecilia Pillado Eve Slatner |
| Cinematography | Stephan Burchardt |
| Edited by | Dominik Kattwinkel |
| Music by | Antonio Gambale David Menke |
Production companies | Rat Pack Filmproduktion XYZ Films |
| Distributed by | IFC Midnight |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes[1] |
| Countries | Germany United States |
| Language | English |
Stung is a 2015 German-American independent romantic comic horror film directed by Benni Diez, written by Adam Aresty, and starring Matt O'Leary, Jessica Cook, Lance Henriksen, Clifton Collins Jr., Cecilia Pillado and Eve Slatner.
Cast
- Matt O'Leary as Paul
- Jessica Cook as Julia
- Lance Henriksen as Mayor Caruthers
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Sydney
- Cecilia Pillado as Flora
- Eve Slatner as Mrs. Perch
- Daniele Rizzo as Larry
- Florentine Lahme as Gweneth
- Kathleen Renish as Mrs. Markham
- Tony de Maeyer as Doc Withney
- David Masterson as Mr. Markham
- Benedikt Bothe as Gardener 1
- Tommy Kreiselmaier as Gardener 2
- Benni Diez as Firefighter
Themes
When asked what Stung was "really about", director Benni Diez answered: "Capitalism! Well, not really. But it's the hard working underdogs who have to save the day, as the upper class crowd virtually turns into flesh eating über-wasps. A survival thriller with a warm heart."[2]
Genre and influences
Benni Diez cited classic horror films like Jaws and Aliens as influences, going so far as to say the "whole film is an homage to films like that".[3] Robinson pointed out that the film has the atmosphere of 1950s creature features, "and the humor is very much up to the moment in terms of camp."[3] Agreeing, Diez referenced Them! (1954), a giant-ant movie, "and other really old black-and-white movies" where the filmmakers did not care about photo-realism, but rather asked, "What's the psychology behind a menacing monster attack? What are the middle layers between? What does this do to people?"[3] Those old American monster movies were what drew Diez to Adam Arresty's script to begin with: "it's a kind of genre where I thought there are way too few movies of that kind that are—you know, that are old-school creature movies that leave you with a fun feeling when you get out of the theater."[4] According to Diez, the questions he and his colleagues as modern independent filmmakers were asking was:
"How can we try to put an indie-movie sensibility into this classic monster drama, and create characters that you believe, because they're very down to earth?" Stung isn't really mumblecore, but it's borderline sometimes. We put those kind of characters into monster situations and then just see what happens. And hopefully, people get emotionally involved because of it.[3]
Reviewers such as Andy Webster[5] and Dennis Harvey, who notes that the film's giant wasps are in fact attacking WASPs, recognize that Stung is also a "horror-comedy"[6] Diez cites comedic and satirical horror films such as Tremors, Gremlins, and Slither as additional influences: "we didn't want to play it too seriously because when you ask the audience to buy into human-sized wasps attacking people, you have to wink once in a while and make a little bit of fun of it."[4]
Tasha Robinson remarks that while Stung is "a silly horror film about giant mutant killer wasps," it is also, at times, "a surprisingly sincere romance." In her interview with Benni Diez, he acknowledged that an early "elevator pitch" for the movie was Garden State vs. Aliens: "We just wanted to have those two genres clash, to see what happens. And it's what we did. Besides, we had to spend a little time without effects just to afford 90 minutes of film on our budget."[3]
Production
Background, writing, and financing
Adam Arresty said his story was inspired by a period when his life was shut down by a wasp attack.[3] In the Robinson interview, Benni Diez said his manager sent him Arresty's script and he loved it. In another interview, Diez said the script "called to me on a few very profound levels, mainly to my inner child that watched Alien way too young and got messed up in the brain by it a little bit."[4] Diez called Arresty and found they had the same tastes in movies and sense of humor:
I knew if I was ever going to do a feature film, this was going to be my first, because it's just perfect. It has every element I love about drama. It has the scope where I would dare start really directing actors. Because it's not an ensemble with a dozen characters that have a lot of nuance, it's very compact.[3]
Diez was excited to work on it, and "luckily enough" a friend worked at a production company.[4] In 2012, Diez shot a 90-second teaser trailer for Stung "for a couple of bucks" to convince people he could create giant wasps of "sufficient quality", which lead to the feature being financed as a German-American co-production.[2][7] In this respect, his background in visual effects (he has a diploma in visual effects and animation from the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy) "helped a lot with financing".[2]
The film was financed through pre-sales around a year before the shoot... At that point crowd funding was discussed, but quickly abandoned, I guess because it would have been more work to handle the campaign than it would have helped the production. Also it sends a weird message to audiences if you already have a significant chunk of money and then go out and ask them for more. In my opinion at least.[2]
Casting and characterization
Diez and Aresty approached a few actors for the role of Mayor Caruthers. One day, Diez said to the producers, "Guys, just for the fun of it, can we ask Lance Henriksen? He's not going to do it, but let's just ask him."[3]
And then I was out with a few friends in Cologne... having a few beers, and my phone rang, and my producing partner [Benjamin Munz] said, "Hey Benni, it's Ben, Lance is doing the movie." And I was like, "What?!" Imagine being out with your friends at night and getting this kind of phone call.[3]
.jpg)
Both Henriksen's character and Sydney, played by Clifton Collins Jr., evolved from the actors: Sydney was originally cast with someone else, and then Collins joined "shortly before the production."[3]
That informed his role a lot. It was really awesome to get him in there, because before that, the role was a bit more basic, really just the weird guy who's kind of a villain. He's such a character actor, and he has such a nice, natural phrasing. He did so much with the role. And having Adam on the set to work on the script, we always had the opportunity to tweak dialogue, to tweak little details in the scenes. I talked a lot with Cliff even on the day before the shoot. Five minutes before the shoot, he blasted me with questions about the character, and we fleshed out even more details. It was really an awesome experience for me as an inexperienced director working with such high-grade character actors.[3]
For Diez, as this was his first feature film, it was a "real challenge" working with experienced actors and creating believable characters with them, even on such a "fairly small scale" such as in a low budget film, but it turned out to be "a mind blowing experience".[2]
I know for actors oftentimes they are frustrated about playing against tennis balls. For me, as a director, as well, it's way more interesting and fun to have puppets on the set; it means you can actually direct physically—like an actor, basically. There's much more humanity and life behind it. Even a wobbly rubber puppet sometimes is more effective in terms of conveying emotion than the best CG creature because the difference is when you do a CG creature... it gets so clinical. It ends up being too smooth; you miss the tiny accidents that happen on-set. You know, when you just say, "Jump a little bit harder, make it a little bit more aggressive." ... It's much more natural when you have things on set. And... it's way more fun... they're covered in slime and artificial blood. It's like kids in a toy store. We were always laughing really hard when we shot those scenes.
Benni Diez[4]
Filming and visual effects
Stung was shot on two Arri Alexa cameras with Hawke anamorphic lenses, Diez and his cinematographer Stephan Burchardt insisting on quality lenses with a view to achieving "a nice cinematic and timeless look."[2] Some greenscreen scenes were shot on Red.[2]
Benni Diez has an established background in visual effects.[4][2] He could not say what percentage of the effects in Stung were practical versus CG as sometimes both were "combined in one shot", though they tried to do as little CG as possible but "ended up with more CG than planned" due to the short amount of time available for principal photography.[3] Broadly speaking, the bodies of the wasps and close-ups are real, while the wings and more distant shots are CG, "because you can't wire-control the bodies any more, because then you would see the puppeteer."[3]
Editing
According to Diez, the original shoot had a lot more romantic elements in it: "One of the earlier cuts had an even longer first act. And we knew, 'Okay, that’s too much. People want to see the wasps in action.'" [3]
Release
The film's world premiere was at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 17, 2015, where it was, according to Tasha Robinson, the "standout" among the "midnight-madness horror movies".[3]
Distribution
Stung had already been picked up by IFC Midnight by the time it screened at Tribeca.[3] The film's general release took place on July 3, 2015.[1][8]
Reception
Stung has a score of 46 out of 100 on MetaCritic based on nine critics' reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[9]
Accolade
References
- ^ a b Harvey, Dennis (15 July 2015). "'Stung' Review: Wasps Attack WASPS in Benni Diez's Thriller". Variety. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Logan, Elizabeth (interviewer). "Meet the 2015 Tribeca Filmmakers #17: Benni Diez Hopes His Audience Will Go Home and Make Love After Seeing 'Stung'". IndieWire. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
{{cite web}}:|first1=has generic name (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Robinson, Tasha (interviewer) (April 24, 2015). "Benni Diez on Stung's tender romance and messy giant mutant wasps". The Dissolve. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
{{cite web}}:|first1=has generic name (help) - ^ a b c d e f Buckley, Heather (interviewer) (July 6, 2015). "Exclusive: Director Benni Diez Talks Stung's Cast, Influences, Road to Directing, and More". Dread Central. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
{{cite web}}:|first1=has generic name (help) - ^ Webster, Andy (July 2, 2015). "Review: 'Stung' Stars Giant Wasps That Attack the Rich". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ Harvey, Dennis (July 15, 2015). "Film Review: 'Stung' Garden-partying WASPs get attacked by an aggressive swarm of mutant actual wasps in this English-language German horror-comedy". Variety. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Bio". bennidiez.com. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Tribeca 2015: IFC Midnight Picks Up 'Stung'". The Hollywood Reporter. April 17, 2015. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
- ^ "Stung". MetaCritic. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
- ^ "Benni Diez Awards". IMDb. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
- ^ Diez, Benni. "bennidiez #stung #fantaspoa #award #bestfeature". Instagram. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
External links
- Stung at IMDb
- Stung on Rotten Tomatoes
