[Review] Chad Archibald’s ‘Bite’ Will Make Your Skin Crawl

By Chris Coffel on April 28, 2016

The opening credit sequence of Bite seems almost like throw away B-roll footage, yet it foreshadows so much of what is to come. Casey (Elma Begovic) is a soon to be bride so she’s on one last vacation getaway with her girlfriends, Jill (Annette Wozniak) and Kirsten (Denise Yuen). They’re soaking up the sun in Costa Rica, all the while one of the friends, Jill most of the time, is capturing everything on camera. Basically we’re watching someone’s home video. The camera is very shaky and it’s these random cuts of the girls partying on the beach. Throughout the cuts we see Casey is slowly getting closer and close to some sleazy looking fella. Remember now, she’s getting married in roughly a week, so this isn’t good. And she loses her engagement ring in the process. Also not good.

Throughout the footage of the girls having a good time we see some moments of Casey exhibiting signs of cold feet. This is all typical pre-marriage stuff with her unsure of how she doesn’t to know her fiancé Jared (Jordan Gray) is the one or not. It’s weird that all of that is being captured on camera by one of her friends. That seems like a shitty move for a friend to pull, but who am I to say?

The girls eventually find their way to a little hidden lagoon of sorts. As Casey and Jill get in the water, Casey is bit by something on her hip. It hurts a little, but no big deal, probably just some little insect. Shortly thereafter the vacation comes to and end and the three friends head back to their normal lives.

We meet Jared and he seems like a nice enough guy. He’s good looking, has a good job and appears to be very much in love with Casey. He’s definitely a momma’s boy though. He and Casey don’t live together, but they do live in the same apartment building where his mother also lives and works as the landlord. Jared won’t stay at Casey’s apartment yet because his mother won’t allow it. His mother (Lawrene Denkers) seems quite awful by the way. She hates Casey and doesn’t think she’s good enough for her son. She’s not shy about it either, letting Casey know it at every opportunity she gets. Despite his mother’s feelings, Jared is very much looking forward to marrying Casey.

Casey on the other hand is still on the fence. The wedding is just a week away and she hasn’t gotten flowers or a cake or her dress altered. Plus she still needs to have a talk to Jared about kids. Jared desperately wants to have them while Casey has no desire. The problem is she’s never told him that. Then there’s that bug bite on her hip. It’s starting to look like a little more than your average bug bite, but not enough to be overly concerned with yet.

Casey plans a nice home cooked dinner with the intention of having a talk with Jared. But she ends up running off and vomiting during the middle. Jared helps her to bed for the evening and Casey does everything she can to convince him to stay. Jared tries to talk about how they need to wait until the wedding but before we know it they start ripping each other’s clothes off and going at it. Apparently the sight of his future wife vomiting is what gets Jared really going.

As the two strip down and things start to get hot and heavy we catch another glimpse at Casey’s bite. It ain’t looking too great. It’s much bigger and looks to be incredibly infected. It’s starting to turn into these huge bubbles on her hip. As the sex heats up Jared moves his hand up Casey’s leg until he reaches the bite. In attempt to squeeze onto her hips Jared pops the bubbles and a whole lot of gross goop comes out. Obviously this freaks them both out and Casey quickly jumps off Jared and rushes into the bathroom. Once there Casey re-examines the bite and now there’s a rather large opening in the wound that is dripping something that sort of looks like pus but it’s a little thicker and more yellow. It’s pretty abhorrent.

Interestingly enough, Jared seems pretty upset that they’re not going to finish having sex. It’s like dude, you just got slimed, don’t you think it’s best you call it a night?

From this point on Bite starts to channel David Cronenberg’s The Fly. This is a good thing of course. Casey starts to display insect-like qualities and she slowly begins to morph into some type of creature. Things get gross and gooey and Casey starts to lay eggs and turns her apartment into a nest. Oh and she starts to spit acid that quickly burns through anything it comes in contact with including human flesh. Pretty normal right?

This is a sticky movie. I think that’s the best way to describe it. It’s just sticky. The more Casey begins to transform the more she secretes various bodily fluids, leaving her apartment covered in a slime reminiscent in something you’d find in Ghostbusters. If you’re a fan of practical effects, this movie is your dream.

Bite isn’t scary so much as it is creepy and disturbing. It’s definitely not for those that have a weak stomach or at the very least should not be watched while eating. There’s lots of popping and oozing that can make your stomach turn. At one point Casey pulls off one of her bloody fingernails at eats it. Yeah, no thank you.

The film does have a few issues that work against it. Most of these are just weird moments from the characters that don’t quite add up. The one that stuck out to me most is when Casey’s friend Kristen stops by her apartment after not hearing from her for a few days. At this point Casey has almost completely transformed into a bug and has locked herself away in her apartment, which now looks like one giant nest. Kristen has to break into the apartment and once inide she doesn’t seem all that surprised by what she finds. Basically she doesn’t react to seeing an apartment that has been turned into a bug’s nest. This really bugged me. She should have reacted in someway. I know I would have been freaked out a little.

Small issues aside, Bite succeeds in being a real fun horror movie. It’s the type of filthy, gross-out horror movie that will make your skin crawl and is perfect to watch with your horror-loving friends.

Bite will be in select theaters and available on VOD and On Deman on May 6th from Scream Factory.