‘A black carpet of death’
The Deadly Swarm is a 2024 sci-fi horror film about a mad scientist who is experimenting on people and turning them into monsters. Previously known as Vampire Flies.
Written and directed by David Gregory (Mega Lightning; Krampus: The Return; Bloody Mary). Produced by “Tyler-James” (Crocodile Swarm; Sky Monster; Monsternado; The Loch Ness Horror; Dinosaur Prison; Deadly Waters) which has been suggested as a pseudonym for prolific filmmakers Scott Jeffrey [aka Scott Chambers] and Rhys Frake-Waterfield.
The British Dark Abyss Productions movie stars Leona Clarke (The Jack in the Box Rises; Unhinged Retribution; Curse of Jack Frost), Richard Kovacs (Mega Lightning; Dragon Fury 2; Hatched; The Gardener), Elliott Eason, Christabel Clark, David Gregory, Osian Dixon, Connor Powles, May Kelly and Jon Kerr.
Plot:
A psychotic scientist who is desperate to find a cure for a disease he thinks killed his wife and has infected his son, invites a group of grotesque and desperate young people to his remote mansion to conduct a series of scientific experiments on them. He hopes that one of these youngsters has the same blood type he needs to develop the cure…
Our review:
Two minutes into this movie and I was thinking “What a steaming pile of shit this movie is!” So you can imagine the string of adjectives I had in my head when this 80-minute snorefest finished! F*cking horrendous. A boring pile of double-excreted cow shit. I could go on and on, unfortunately.
I’m used to these low-budget British “horror” and “sci-fi” movies that are pumped out by the dozen every month from a handful of sweatshops, the issue is that the makers of this film haven’t learnt yet what the audience wants.
Here is a hint: if you have a movie about a deadly swarm of flies, and proudly display the oversized queen fly on the poster of your movie it’s a good idea to let the audience see this swarm of flies more than once throughout the run time.
In between the usual British banter – which in this case revolves around the constant bickering of these vile individuals which include a pathetic incel and a ridiculous tough girl – a swarm of infectious flies hilariously kills them off until the scientist morphs into a mutant fly and has a face of the equally mutant sized queen.
I understand why you’d want to watch this, it’s just that you shouldn’t. This is a real “trust me bro” kind of scenario.
There is a movie I watched on video in the ’90s called Mosquito about a swarm of mozzies who mutate to the size of a vulture after sucking the blood of an alien corpse. I thought this movie would be like that and have similar effects. For 1994 they looked pretty damn good considering they were puppets and not CGI.
Instead, this movie went down the CGI route and it looks truly horrendous, except for the final battle at the end between the two giant flies. All the budget went there.
Speaking of budget, where did they get these actors from? Some of the most wooden dialogue delivery I have ever seen, coupled with the over-the-top acting of certain characters makes this painful to sit through. Not even the allure of knowing most of these people will get killed is enough to want to put up with it.
Every character is truly vile. Every line of dialogue is horrendously delivered. And to add insult to injury, it’s clear the movie’s budget didn’t extend to being able to clean the walls after the production had concluded, because there is plastic wrap in the scientist’s lab to catch the blood splatter. What an impractical thing to have there.
If I have to say something good about the film, then it would be that the actual visual presentation looks decent. Some nice post-production contrast work gives the movie a bit of a filmstock vibe. But that’s the only good thing I can say.
When there are so many movies out there to watch, I hate wasting my time watching shit ones, and that’s exactly what this is.
It’s not even a so-bad-it’s-good movie. It’s just a bad movie all around. Hopefully, I’ve just saved you the 80 minutes it would have taken to watch this crap.
The Arty Dans, MOVIES & MANIA – for more of Dan’s reviews visit his site
YouTube review:
Trailer:
Release:
The Deadly Swarm was released on digital platforms and VOD by Uncork’d Entertainment on April 2, 2024.
Notes:
The David Gregory who wrote and directed this movie should not be confused with another David Gregory, the director of documentaries Master of Dark Shadows and Blood and Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson; Master of Dark Shadows; plus features Plague Town and The Theatre Bizarre (co-director) and co-owner of Blu-ray disc company Severin Films.
This movie should not be confused with Deadly Swarm which is about killer wasps (2003) or Destination: Infection (2007) which is about bullet ants and has also been released as Deadly Swarm.
Cast and characters:
Leona Clarke … Ellie; Elliott Eason … Rust; Richard Kovacs … Doctor Holger Feldman; Jon Kerr … Phil; Osian Dixon … Matt; Christabel Clark … Hailey; Connor Powles … Liam Feldman; May Kelly … Jess; David Gregory … Harry
Technical specs:
1 hour 21 minutes
External trustworthy recommended reviews:
Geek Legion of Doom [YouTube]
Voices from the Balcony
More David Gregory movies:
MEGA LIGHTNING Psycho in a disaster movie mashup – free to watch on Tubi and YouTube
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