#3 - Bite (2015)

Bite (2015)

(dir. Chad Archibald)

While on vacation in Costa Rica for her bachelorette party, Casey receives a seemingly harmless bite from an insect.  She is also raped by a stranger who takes advantage of her while drunk.  Upon her return home, she is overcome with guilt and anxiety about the upcoming wedding, and also comes down with some kind of serious illness... if you can consider a slow horrible transformation into a disgusting bug creature an "illness".

The film sets up the violation of the insect bite as a metaphor for the rape, but doesn't really follow through with that theme.  Casey starts off as a victim whose life is falling apart because of the bite/rape, but the message becomes muddied as she transforms into a hideous creature and starts killing her friends.  I'm pretty sure the filmmakers didn't intend to convey the idea that being raped makes you a bad and ugly person, but that's how it comes across.

The only thing this film really has going for it are some pretty good practical effects and makeup.  Casey's transformation is grotesque and gag-inducing, and I mean that in a good way.  Every inch of her apartment ends up covered in slimy gelatinous goo and insect eggs - I imagine this movie must have been very unpleasant to make.  Unfortunately there are a couple scenes of cheap looking CGI towards the end, but the vast majority of the effects are practical and well done.

The decent effects don't outweigh the mediocrity of the rest of the film, though.  Overall this is a pretty forgettable movie that squanders what could have been an interesting premise.  Can't say I recommend it at all.