Swarmed
SciFi Films
Starring Michael Shanks,
Carol Alt, Ellen Dubin, Richard Chevolleau, Tim Thompson

by Karen Greim Mullian
© December 27, 2005

If ever you wanted the bugs to take over the Earth, this is the moment. Make no mistake: Swarmed is not a great film. It will not go down in the annals of Hollywood (north or south) as ET or Star Wars.

But wait! Swarmed is actually a heckuva lot of fun.

The story opens with Kent Horvath (Michael Shanks) in a lab coat testing bug spray on your average everyday run-of-the-mill garden-variety yellow jackets. The company he works for, as it turns out, doesn't make just bug spray. They're conducting experiments in genetic mutations. When a janitor turns up dead after being stung by an escaped specimen, the excitement begins. Mild-mannered (and delightfully underplayed) Kent joins forces with attractive Professor Christina Brown (Carol Alt), an entymologist at the local college to prevent disaster. Sparks don't exactly fly – that's not what this story's about – but they make a nice couple and form an earnest partnership with "Q" (Richard Chevolleau) to light a fire under this film.

Michael Shanks and Carol Alt put in restrained, subtle performances that bring the likable Kent and Christina to life. You like these people. Despite their mutual interest in multi-legged creatures that most of us would crawl under a rock to avoid, you want these people to solve the problem and get together in the end.

There are a few other people in this movie to like. Ellen Dubin (Mary Higgins Clark's All Around the Town, Lexx, The Collector) is delightfully over the top as Ellie Martin, the pink-coated assistant to the Mayor of Dundas, Indiana (a very real place, by the way). When the chips are down and the weapon of choice is a 12-gauge double-barreled shotgun, I want this woman on my side.

While Shanks has top billing in this bug flick, Richard Chevolleau steals the show as Kent's buddy "Q." He's funny and engaging and a damned fine actor with a list of tv and film credits that would make a Hollywood veteran proud. Q's in the pest-control business (the license plate on his truck says, "Bug Off.") Occasionally, Q gets his bug spray from Kent's company. On this occasion, Kent specifically tells him not to take the stuff in the red bottle because testing on the contents hasn't yet been completed. Of course, Q takes the red bottle, setting off a chain of events that is pretty predictable, so I won't spoil the fun.

The bad guys in this movie aren't totally bad. Mostly – the Mayor, the police chief, a narcissistic barbecue expert – they're deadly boring, and their collective demise is more like a mercy killing. Not that they don't deserve what they get. Insensitive to impending disaster as only bureaucrats can be, they refuse to take appropriate action despite the warnings of experts because of financial interests. The big barbecue means big bucks for the City of Dundas, and shutting it down because of a few pesky bugs will cost the town a boatload of money. At greatest risk for losing out is Phineas Washburn, the mega-rich manufacturer of the best barbecue sauce ever. Played by Tim Thompson (Xena fans may remember him as Maleager the Magnificant), Washburn is the scum of the Earth, and he gets what's coming to him. The snooty tv reporter gets hers in a Cadillac limo while her much put-upon cameraman gets it all on tape from the protection of a phone booth. A tip of the hat to Tippy Hedrin in The Birds, maybe, but that's the closest this movie gets to a classic.

The special effects are about what you'd expect from a B-movie, and they're not nearly as bad as Michael has indicated at recent con appearances. In all seriousness, Michael has nothing to apologize for. This is a fun flick that bugs out in a blaze of glory, and everyone lives happily ever after...well, maybe...

This review first appeared on the Michael-Shanks Yahoo Group.