Category Archives: fantasy

Still A Few Bugs In The System

Area 33 Posted on by

THE SWARM (La Nuée)- directed by Just Philippot
– written by Franck Victor and Jérôme Genevray – SPOILERS

Marie Narbonne, Raphael Romand, and Suliane Brahim

The Hébrard family – Laura, Gaston, and Virginie at the dinner table

On a farm somewhere in the French countryside, Virginie Hébrard (Suliane Brahim) decides to raise locusts as a last ditch effort to survive. She has a mildly asthmatic, soccer-playing son named Gaston (Raphael Romand), and a daughter Laura (Marie Narbonne), who is in high school and is somewhat stigmatized socially for being the daughter of the bug lady. The notion of farming insects for food is a good one (if one must farm animals for food at all). Locusts are a much more efficient source of protein than larger food animals and less land is used in the process of raising them. Alas, her bugs do not lay enough eggs, and she is forced to sell the small quantities of locust flour she produces as feed for the raising of geese and the like. Continue reading →

A Girl And Her (Rescue) Dog

Area 33 Posted on by

SHE NEVER DIED – Directed by Audrey Cummings – Written by Jason Krawczyk – SPOILERS

She (Olunike Adeliyi) is immortal, but not a vampire although she does manage to impale someone in the course of things. She eats people, but does not drink blood, and “technically” does not eat meat. (That didn’t come out quite the way it should have.) The only thing other than people she is seen to eat is oatmeal, which is her standard order at the diner she frequents. She drinks tea, and goes by the name Lacey.

Lacey’s victims are always male, and are always people operating outside the law (so they won’t be missed). The first thing we see her do is interrupt the abduction of a woman. The attacker was destined to be her next meal, so saving the woman was incidental. Next she (perhaps accidentally) rescues a dog, taking a bullet in the head in the process. Bullets only penetrate a short way into Lacey’s body, and that might have something to do with density. A couple of bad guys trying to abduct her about halfway through the film discover that she is inordinately heavy. She weighs 257 lbs, but looks like she weighs half that. Lacey looks human, but given her diet, rapid healing abilities, and body mass, she might not be entirely human. Continue reading →

When We (Un)dead Awaken…

Area 33 Posted on by

KICKING BLOOD – a film by Blaine Thurier – SPOILERS

Rosemary Dunsmmore

Bernice (Rosemary Dunsmore) with Anna’s birthday cake (which has icing that can only be described as baroque).

Birthdays don’t mean much to immortals, but Anna (Alanna Bale), a vampire of unspecified age, finds herself confronted with cake with questionable icing and a candle stuck in it. She blows out the candle and makes an effort, but of course she can’t eat the thing, and none of her co-workers seem to find that in the least bit odd. One of those co-workers is Bernice (Rosemary Dunsmore) who is (perhaps) terminally ill and being kept alive by various medications. Anna finds Bernice’s situation fascinating. When she overhears Gerry (Shaun Austin-Olsen) treating Bernice somewhat shabbily, the vampire finds it necessary to take action and lets herself into his apartment. He of course misunderstands her visit and offers her some eighty-year-old scotch. She doesn’t drink alcohol, but after feeding on Gerry, she takes that bottle of excellent scotch with her. Continue reading →