Bite (2015)

Bite (2015)

And yet another Canadian film… which also happens to be a body horror film. That says it all!

Several times, within the first five minutes, I nearly stopped the film, because it starts off like a found-footage film and I hate that sort of film. I can’t stand them any more. It was funny at first, back in the days of The Blair Witch Project (1999). There are some I’ve more or less enjoyed, like The Visit (2015) or Ratter (2015).

This film becomes ‘normal’ after about seven minutes!
It’s quite nice: a character says, ‘It’s just a little bite!’ and the film’s title, Bite, appears! There’s the same gag at the end.

There are a few nice moments in this film. But for the most part, it’s sickening and annoying. The main character has absolutely no backbone to take responsibility for anything. She’s about to get married, but drinks too much and sleeps with someone else. She loses her wedding ring, and that’s not all: she gets bitten by a tiny aquatic creature, the wound gets infected, she can’t stop vomiting, but she doesn’t go to the doctor! What’s more, her fiancé buys a high chair, but she doesn’t have the guts to tell him she can’t have children! However empathetic I may be, in such extreme cases, I have no sympathy for such cowardice.

Some have compared Bite to the work of David Cronenberg (Rabid, Shivers, The Fly) – the undisputed master of the genre – even going so far as to draw parallels with Roman Polanski’s Repulsion. So, indeed, we are dealing with a sort of female-led version of The Fly. Just as repulsive – and I am, of course, not referring to the original 1958 version.

In these films, there are regularly aberrant sexual acts, mutations, mutilations, zombification, gratuitous violence, diseases or unnatural bodily movements.

Chad Archibald has clearly improved with It Feeds (2025), which I really enjoyed. I’d sensed that must have been his masterpiece, because I hated this film and I’d seen it coming. So, of course, those who love the most disgusting, the most gory stuff will love it. If you enjoy seeing all sorts of fluids oozing out of bodies (slime, pus, vomit, blood…), you’ll be in your element! But that’s definitely not my cup of tea. Even drinking water whilst watching it was a struggle. I reckon it’s the perfect sort of film for those who want to avoid overeating or simply snacking in front of their screen.

In fact, a bitter taste lingers as I write these lines. After this film, you’ll want to take a bath in bleach, Biseptine and a dash of black soap and Marseille soap! Everything in it is just so filthy.

Someone had written: ‘This film is so obscure that none of its actors have a Wikipedia page.’ I don’t know if that’s still the case.

It’s hard for me to put into words just how bad, illogical, repulsive and appalling this film is, and how it just gets worse and worse. Can you really make the audience of this sort of film swallow just anything? I don’t even want to waste my time writing any more, but, as a good professional, I’ll do it.
A woman cheats on her boyfriend, but loses it the moment her own boyfriend does the same! She screams very loudly and, through that, manages to make both lovers vomit. What a power!!!

Wait… here I go again! A bloke finds out his girlfriend has cheated on him. So, he immediately sleeps with the woman standing right next to him, the one who showed him the video of the betrayal. Basically, he’d have jumped on the first woman who came along. I could go on and on, because in every way, from every angle, this film is pathetic!

Rarely has a film made me feel so sick! It would have traumatised me if I’d seen it as a kid. The Fly had a similar effect on me, but with time I’ve realised why that’s a good film and why Bite is just a load of rubbish.

Someone wrote: “It’s easy to draw a comparison with the film Contracted, as here too we see a dramatic transformation and a very violent descent into hell. The only difference is the starting point: it’s not an STI that sets the whole thing in motion, but an insect bite, as the title suggests. With a starting point like that, it’s easy to imagine where it’s all heading, and indeed, there are no surprises. The story is rather lacklustre in the sense that it’s underdeveloped and fairly predictable, but this can be justified by the limited budget and, above all, by the fact that it’s almost entirely a closed-set film, so… that does limit things quite a bit. The film is great fun with quite a few gross moments. The director has avoided digital effects, which is a good thing, and it’s easy to imagine a sequel that could go in many directions – whether it’s something more spectacular or a prequel; in any case, I hope there’ll be one.”

As for me, it’s the opposite: I hope there’ll be no sequel, no prequel, nothing at all! But I’m reassured, as this feature film doesn’t seem to have been a success.

‘Bite’ might have something going for it in the gore department, but that’s about it. The film tells the story of a woman called Casey (Elma Begovic) who gets bitten by a strange insect whilst on holiday with her friends. Well, given that it happens in the water, you’d naturally assume it was a fish that bit her. In any case, she ends up laying eggs!

When she returns home, she starts showing the strange symptoms of an unknown illness. The story itself is clichéd and brings absolutely nothing new to the table. The acting isn’t very good at all, and the characters all make ridiculous decisions. Once the film kicks into high gear, it focuses on Casey rather than the rest of the cast, who are rather boring. When he starts turning nasty, he really goes all out, so fans of gory, slimy scenes will most likely be impressed and in seventh heaven.

Conclusion:

Very reminiscent of The Fly, right down to the choice of blonde actress!

For a transformation film, the plot hangs by a thread and the actors are completely unconvincing. The plot is so predictable that boredom sets in very quickly. So, I’d even advise against it for some fans of this genre.

It’s not a major film; the plot isn’t going to revolutionise cinema, and even the transformation isn’t done well! It might be worth watching with a group of in-the-know mates just for a laugh.

0 Stars