Bite (2015) Movie Review
Written By: FZ
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Chad Archibald
Writers: Chad Archibald, Jayme Laforest
Producer: Nat Abraham, Tim Brown, Ira Levy, Michael McGuigan, Peter Williamson
Release Date: October 15, 2015
Cast:
Elma Begovic as Casey
Annette Wozniak as Jill
Denise Yuen as Kirsten
Jordan Gray as Jared
Lawrene Denkers as Mrs. Kennedy
Barry Birnber as Mr. Mathenson
Daniel Klimitz as Mao
Tianna Nori as Joanne
Caroline Palmer as Hannah
Rating = 2.5/5 Graves
***May contain spoilers***
Synopsis
Bite (2015) follows the story of Casey, a soon to be married woman who attends her bachelorette party in Costa Rica. During her stay at Costa Rica, she suddenly gets bitten by and unknown insect and ignores the bite until she returns home. While at home, she starts exhibiting strange insect-like behavior. At that point, Casey is no longer interested in getting married and starts to do things like weave webs, build hives and even starts feeding on human flesh.
Gore Factor
Bite (2015) incorporates a number of death scene in the film. What made the film grotesque was the use of body horror and excretion from the insect/person creature. Any people who are killed are placed in a hive-like place where they are stored. There are a few notable scenes in this film. In one scene, a woman spits acid in the face of another woman and the skin melts off of her face. In another scene, a woman accidentally kills her friend while trying to cover her mouth when her hand excretes a blue substance that seals her friend’s mouth shut causing her to suffocate to death.
The Grave Review
When viewing the film, Bite (2015), is it difficult not to think of the novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The story is very similar whereby Casey is struggling to control her transformation from human to insect form. As with Kafka’s story, the film focuses in part on the mental and physical state that Casey is experiencing as she is becoming less and less human every day. The plot was sound but the mediocre of this infamous plot was mediocre.
The special effects and make up work were very impressive. The excretion that Casey produces such as the eggs and slime were grotesque and certainly made an impression. Most of Casey’s transformation from human to insect are shot off screen however the final product of Casey’s transformation was creepy. Casey turns into this terrifying creature in which she is able to spew acid in the direction of her victims. The fact that Casey’s victims are generally bad people themselves makes the killings more justifiable.
The environments and set designs were also well-done. The viewer is able to see how the apartment transforms from a very clear home to a hive infested lair. This aspect was able to add an additional fright factor to the film.
Overall, the story is not original but reminds us of the classic novel as stated above. The pacing is adequate, but the performances are mediocre. Interestingly, the movie did not explain what really transpired and why it happened similar to the novel but creating film adaptations of novels generally need more explanation which Bite (2015) did not do. It is still a well-made film with great special effects.
For the foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Bite (2015) two and one-half graves out of five graves.
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