Stinger (2005)
- Andrew Smith
- Jul 24
- 4 min read
""Terror has surfaced."
Plot
Following the reappearance of a submarine containing a top-secret project which had been missing for two months, an investigative team is sent to the submerged vessel to find out what happened. After finding the submarine crew dead and ripped to pieces, they soon uncover just what killed them – the top secret project, a swarm of genetically-enhanced scorpions, have become loose on board the sub.
Review
Even by the low standards that many a horror film reviewed on this site, there always seems to be another one which seeks to lower the stakes. Enter Stinger, a feeble underwater creature feature with about as much venom as a headless snake. Made in Sweden, a country not exactly renowned for their film-making prowess, Stinger bears all of the hallmarks of a low budget American monster movie. Awful CGI effects, cardboard cut-out military characters with token big-breasted blonde scientists (at least the Swedes know where their strengths lay!) and a lot of too-ing and fro-ing in the corridors without a lot happening. Allegedly, this was a comedy too but unless it’s a cultural thing, then I don’t think anyone in Sweden would be laughing either.
Stinger has minimal plot. There’s a brief pre-credits sequence setting up the events which led to the submarine going missing, then the titles and then the rescue mission is on its way. It’s a vague set-up which on one hand doesn’t insult the viewer by spewing out a load of nonsense. The premise sounds exactly like what you want from this specific genre though. You have isolation. You have military hubris with the classic top-secret project gone wrong trope. And you have giant mutated bugs. But on the other hand, the rest of the film proves to be somewhat plot-less. Stinger spends the rest of its running time going around in circles in the submarine, as the characters look around various corridors and rooms, run into the scorpions a few times and meet a crazy survivor, all with little or no narrative momentum. Stinger quickly falls into the trope trap. Instead of doing what any rational human being would do, which is immediately seal the bulkhead and bail out of the submarine at the first sign of giant killer scorpion. But the team is conveniently trapped. They find themselves stuck and must run around repairing the submarine's electrical and propulsion systems to escape.
Industry standard is that one page of a script roughly equals one minute of screen time. So if you only have about forty pages of actual story such as boarding the sub, finding the monster, fighting the monster, but you are contractually obligated by a distributor to deliver a ninety-minute film, you have a massive fifty-page gap to fill. They don’t have the budget to shoot more action. Suddenly, you have padded out forty-five minutes of characters looking for wrenches in dark hallways, arguing about which wire to cut, and just walking back and forth to the engine room, which forces the characters into these endless dimly lit corridors. But even a stalling tactic can work if the atmosphere is right. Stinger is almost entirely set on board the submarine (and the other bits are on the other mini-sub) and whilst the sets do allow for some claustrophobic elements to come to the fore, the lack of light and low production values really harm the atmosphere. The sound design of groaning metal; the tight framing; the lack of headroom; it should force that claustrophobia right to the forefront. But the sheer lack of technical lighting skills and incredibly low production values actively destroy that built-in advantage. At no point do you ever believe that they’re underwater.
The grainy, murky film stock does little to assist the film’s intentions either. Characters’ faces are hidden in shadows, you can’t really see too much of the set (probably not such a bad thing) and there’s definitely no chance of getting a good look at the CGI scorpions which lurk in the shadowy background. I even had to brighten one of the scarce images I could find of the scorpions online so you can get a glimpse at one. The scorpions look terrible and at no point will you believe they’re running around the submarine, the animations is just too awful to blend in with the real footage. Their eventual demise happens off-screen, such as the lameness of the plot and the lack of budget that this entire thing shows. It is the absolute pinnacle of a broken audience contract. We've spent the entire film pacing through these dark corridors, waiting for a payoff with these mutated monsters, and when the moment finally arrives, the film literally doesn't have the resources to animate their destruction or give us anything remotely satisfying, showing a complete lack of respect not only for the audience but just the film's own narrative arc. It's literally one of the most essential parts of storytelling - make the ending worth the journey.
There are no recognisable faces on show and that’s a bonus as none of these sub-par stand-ins do any good. Check out their acting credits on IMDB and Stinger is one of the only films that the majority of them made. There’s little acting range: the marines talk tough and shout orders, the scientists talk slowly and arrogantly, and the psychotic survivor goes overdrive with the ramblings. The token blonde character gets to show off why Sweden is the go-to places for stunning women but it’s so predictable that she’s going to take her top off (and twice for the good of it so no complaints here), it ruins the eventual delights. Former finalist for Miss Sweden, Daniella Kimber, is the ‘actress’ in question here. It’s about the only thrill you’ll get from this, as the rest of the running time is dull and uneventful. Even the ‘action scenes’ fail to raise the pulse as marines fire guns aimlessly at non-existent scorpions.
Final Verdict
Forgetting its European origins, everything about Stinger stinks of the low budget American creature feature market dominated by Sy Fy and The Asylum. But even their efforts are head-and-shoulders above this drivel. If you have a burning desire to get a fix of killer scorpions, delve into the archives and watch The Black Scorpion from the 50s. The human elements may just be as bad but at least the scorpions pack a punch.
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Stinger Director(s): Martin Munthe Writer(s): Mat Nastos Actor(s): Michelle Meadows, Daniella Kimber, Tom Huntington, Richard Froelich, Jordi Almeida, James Cagnard, Casey Clark, Christopher Persson Duration: 97 mins |  |
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