| Swarmed | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Paul Ziller |
| Produced by | Neil Bregman Stefan Wodoslawsky |
| Written by | Miguel Tejada-Flores |
| Starring | Michael Shanks Carol Alt Richard Chevolleau Booth Savage Christopher Bondy Tim Thomerson |
| Music by | James Gelfand |
| Cinematography | Robert Saad |
| Editing by | Robert Newton |
| Distributed by | Sci Fi Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 6, 2005 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Swarmed is a Canadian, made for television film by Sci Fi Pictures. It first aired on April 6, 2005. It stars Michael Shanks, as a scientist, trying to save the town from mutated yellow jacket wasps.
Contents |
Kent Horvath (Michael Shanks) is a scientist, trying to invent a new pesticide, specifically for yellow jacket wasps. He tests it out on eight yellow jackets, to see how well it works. It kills six, out of the eight wasps, and the two who survived now have extremely high pheromone levels, resulting in increased aggression. That night, the janitor (John Baktins) accidentally releases them, and they both attack, and kill, him. The next morning, they find his body, along with one of the wasps, with the other one nowhere to be found.
His body is taken to the morgue, where the mortician (Claudio Masciulli), hears a buzzing, from the janitors mouth, and opens it, freeing the, somehow, trapped wasp. It then proceeds to sting him, until he is dead. It then flys away. Meanwhile, Cristina Brown (Carol Alt), a scientist, is teaching a class about bees. One young man, (Mazin Elsadig) relates to her a story about how he was once stung by a wasp, and suddenly six or seven other wasps attacked him. She tells him that was because when an insect attacks, it releases an attack pheromone, which tells all the other insects that they need to attack. The class is cut short, when she is called in about the mortician. Agent Doug Heydon, (Booth Savage) tells her about Kent, and his research. She decides to go investigate.
Meanwhile, Q (Richard Chevolleau) a bug exterminator, who is friends with Kent, is called by a family, who has a bad yellow jacket problem. He is out of pesticide, and goes to Kent to get some. Kent tells him not to take any of the new pesticide, in the red bottles, but a curious Q mixes it with the regular solution. As he sprays the nest, the results come back, of the analysis, of the hyper-aggressive wasp's venom. It has been learned that the venom is now incredibly strong, due to the new pesticide.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Police (Bill Lake), blackmails, Mayor Gibson (Christopher Bondy), with evidence that he has been making covert meetings, with Phineas Washburn (Tim Thomerson), a man who owns Washburn's Tasty Sauce, a company that makes a delicious steak sauce. It turns out Washburn made a large financial contribution to Gibson's reelection campaign. The Chief tells Gibson that he wants a large donation to his 401(k), before he retires. He leaves, with Gibson furious
Meanwhile, Q puts the sprayed nest in his trash compactor, but about one quarter, of the nest, survives, including the queen. They chase Q to his truck, where he administers anti-venom, before passing out. The wasps then leave, and begin sending off attack pheromones, which, not only attract multiple other swarms, but also mutate them, to have extremely potent venom, as well. Meanwhile, Cristina and Kent, go to the home of a man who was stung to death, by the swarm, because they were attracted to the raw meat patties, on his grill. They find a dead wasp, on his clothes, and take it back to the lab, for analysis. Meanwhile, Q is awoken, by Rafe (Jonathan Malen), the teenager he's watching for the summer. He and Rafe decide to go find and kill the swarm themselves.
Back at the lab, the venom results show that the potency is identical to the strength of the wasp, that killed the janitor. They go tell Agent Heydon, and they all agree that the annual burger cook-off will attract the wasps right to all the people. Heydon goes to tell the Chief, as they go to tell Washburn that they have to cancel the cook-off. However, neither of them believe them, and are told not to mess the cook-off. Just after Heydon leaves the Chief, the swarm is attracted to his rare steak, and kill him, when he fights back. Eventually, Q and Rafe find the part of the swarm that stayed behind to finish off, the steak, with the pheromone detector, that Q took from Kent. Q uses a flamethrower to kill the swarm, but melts part of his van, in the process.
Meanwhile, the single wasp that first killed the janitor, finds its way to Mayor Gibson's office, and kills him, by stinging his eye. His assistant, Ellie Martin, (Ellen Dubin) finds his body, and chases the wasp, with a shotgun, eventually killing it. Kent and Cristina come, and ask her if she killed it. She says she "blew it to Kingdom Come." The cook-off then starts, and Heydon comes to try to convince Washburn, that they have to shut it down. But before he can, the swarm arrives, and begins attacking people. They kill a woman, Melanie Sheer Maria Brooks, a mean reporter, while her camera man, Chuey (Balázs Koós), video tapes. Washburn hides in a dunk tank, but gets killed when two wasps, crawl down the hose that he is breathing through, and sting his mouth. Eventually, Kent and Cristina show up, and begin administering anti-venom, to the stung, and use tire patching spray, to close up the wasps' breathing holes. Q also arrives and begins attracting the wasps to a golf cart, to trap them inside a garage. While he does so, Kent, Cristina, and Rafe begin gathering petrol tanks, and gasoline, so as to destroy the wasps, altogether. Q manages to get the wasps inside, and they ignite the gas, with Rafe's lighter. But the queen survives, and goes after Q, but is sucked up by Rafe, with the portable vacuum cleaner he was given, to vacuum up the dead wasps. He then throws it, into the fire.
We then see Kent and Cristina, who are now in a relationship, going to dinner. The camera then zooms up to the charred vacuum, as we see the queen, who somehow survived, laying eggs.
The movie was filmed in Ontario, Canada, and was distributed by Sci Fi Pictures.
The film received mixed reviews, by critics, with a 35% semi-rotten rating, on Rotten Tomatoes.