Bite (2015): A Confused 'The Fly'

Bite(2015) was on a list of movies that 'apparently' made people sick when watching them. So, of course I had to give it a viewing, and test this for myself.

The premise: a woman gets bitten by a bug on holiday and proceeds to transform into an insect.

The further plot and details are as bareboned as the idea, but that’s not always a bad thing. In fact there’s something in the black comedy vein about how Casey’s (Elma Begovic) feelings on having children at the beginning of the movie links to what happens to her. Maybe we could ask if this is all a metaphor for society wearing people who don’t want a baby down into someone they’re not.

But the movie doesn't explore that, and gives us the gross out body horror we want to see, instead. It doesn’t shy away from the various fluid coming from Casey’s mouth, bite wound and fingernails. Whilst it’s never clear what the full extent of Casey’s bug powers are, it’s certainly always a disgusting surprise when something new happens. And really, the accidental deaths do start probing at deeper emotions, developing Casey just a bit more than expected.

The beginning of Bite is interesting – with a found footage montage of a hen do in Costa Rica. It's a creative way to give us natural exposition - if it was natural to film these kind of conversations.

The second half of this movie, with Casey’s increasingly awful friend Jill (Annette Wozniak) does seem unnecessary in trying to add a bit more edge - with the inclusion of letting a man have his way with Casey whilst she can't say no. It's enough to make the suspension of disbelief waver. Again, maybe we can draw a mirror between the unwanted advances of an insect with the unwanted advances of men, but if so – then what is it saying? It seems to be an excuse to justify Casey into cold-blood killings but at a point where she is so bug that we don’t know how much of her is left.

So whilst the sets and the colours used on this film are brilliant, the practical gross-out effects well-done (though not, I may say, enough to make me physically ill, but maybe that’s because I expected to), the story is muddled. We never know what Casey is really turning into and we aren’t invested enough to find out – because she never talks to anyone about it. We don’t know why she didn’t go and see a doctor, we don’t know why she didn’t talk about it to her friends or fiancée. She says she doesn’t want to leave the eggs, but that is after it gets concerningly bad. (Can she not google for advice? Call a doctor, if not see one?) Furthermore, no one who knows her thinks to organise a welfare check, despite not seeing her for weeks. These don’t seem like hard things to explain to the audience, but apparently medical assistance is to this movie what the cops are to slasher flicks. The lack of logic is what makes the characters fall into the Brechtian roles of ‘the boyfriend,’ ‘the friend.’ What it doesn’t explain would be the more interesting movie – Casey could be examined by doctors and we could get some lore into the film.

I compare it to Cronenburg’s The Fly because of their similar premise. But The Fly is the stronger, more memorable film for its cohesion, characters and gross-out special effects. If you saw that one first, Bite will probably be a disappointment. But if you haven’t, this film makes a good warm-up to it.

(Side note: the line “it’s not that bad – everyone gets sick when they go abroad,” is the movie’s saving grace.)