Bite (film)

Bite
Bite
Directed by	Chad Archibald Gina Simone (First Assistant Director) Jessica Kirec (Second Assistant Director)
Written by	Chad Archibald Jayme Laforest
Produced by	Nat Abraham (executive producer) Chad Archibald (producer) Tim Brown (executive producer) Cody Calahan (producer) Christopher Giroux (producer) Ira Levy (executive producer) Jeff Maher (co-producer) Michael McGuigan (executive producer) James O'Donnell (line producer) Audrey Velichka (supervising producer) Peter Williamson (executive producer)
Starring	Elma Begovic Annette Wozniak Denise Yuen Jordan Gray Lawrene Denkers Barry Birnberg Daniel Klimitz Tianna Nori Caroline Palmer
Cinematography	Jeff Maher
Edited by	Nick Montgomery
Music by	Steph Copeland
Distributed by	Black Fawn Distribution (2016) (Canada) (DVD) Scream Factory (2016) (USA) (all media) United Front Entertainment (UFE) (2016) (Canada) (DVD)
Release dates	29 May 2015 (Premiered in Canada at Fantasia Film Festival); 2 August 2016 (Premiered in USA at Milehigh Film Festival); 2 October 2015; 9 December Releasing in USA on Bluray and DVD (06); Releasing in Canada on BluRay and DVD;
Running time	88 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

Bite is a 2015 inter-national, body-horror film by Canadian writer/director Chad Archibald (The Drownsman, Ejecta), produced by Black Fawn Films, and Breakthrough Entertainment about a young woman who is bitten by an waterborne insect while in Costa Rica and suffers horrifying consequences. ^[1]

Plot

Casey (played by Elma Begovic) returns home from her Bachelorette party in Costa Rica with a seemingly innocuous insect bite but is too preoccupied with her issues at home to take note. An over-bearing step-mother, and cold-feet over her impending wedding are at the top of her list of concerns but the horrifying effects of the bite are the one thing she will not be able to escape from as her instincts take a turn for the murderous and her body degenerates into an insectoid form.

Cast

Elma Begovic as Casey

Annette Wozniak as Jill

Denise Yeun as Kirsten

Jordan Gray as Jared

Lauren Denkers as Mrs. Kennedy

Barry Birnberg as Mr. Mathenson

Daniel Klimintz as Mao

Tianna Nori as Joanne

Caroline Palmer as Hannah

Release

‘’Bite’’ was released in 2015 at the Fantasia International Film Festival, Fantasy Filmfest, Film4 Fright Fest, Mile High Horror Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, Lund International Fantastic Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Tucson Terrorfest, Night Visions Film Festival, Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, Monster Fest. Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, and Texas Frightmare Weekend. A subtitled version was released in Madrid, Spain on June 7, 2016 ^[2].

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics and currently holds a 36% Fresh Rating on RottenTomatoes ^[3] and a 4.9 out of 10 on IMDb ^[4]. The beginning of the film and character development in particular were criticized, with the relationships and acting being described as unconvincing and generic to the point of being parodic, while the complex themes and body-horror elements were generally viewed more favorably by critics, Brian Tallerico from rogerebert.com called it “one of those early career horror entries in which the filmmakers don’t quite nail the set-up or the landing, but the gooey center of the film works for those with a high tolerance for things that might make a majority of the population queasy.”^[5]

Phil Wheat from Nerdly had a slightly more positive takeaway after seeing the Frightfest 2015 screening: “Bite is strange and claustrophobic tale of sexuality, horror and bodily fluids recalls the best of David Cronenberg (Rabid, Shivers, The Fly), even echoing of Roman Polanski’s Repulsion in the isolated madness of Casey’s condition. And as such is unmissable”^[6] and Matt Boiselle from Dread Central stated that “Bite definitely has the chops to be the Fly of the new age and simply shouldn’t be missed, especially if you’re a gorehound on the prowl.”^[7]

Many audience members were apparently unprepared for the gruesome content of the film however, as Fantasia Film Festival co-director Mitch Davis said on Facebook, “I leave the BITE premiere for all of ten minutes and the following text lights up my phone: “2 people fainted. One girl is puking and another hit his head on stairs”. Truth.” Davis also had special ‘’Bite’’ branded barf-bags handed out to the audience. ^[8]