The Hornet's Sting and the Hell It's Caused (2014) Reviews

• Another low budget and unique slice of genius from the new Master of Horror

  DVD_Connoisseur2014-09-27

  It's a little known fact that Dustin Mills, the director of The Hornet's Sting, doesn't sleep. In fact, I'm guessing he doesn't eat or have comfort breaks, either. In the space of less than a year, Mills has released four low budget genre movies. I've yet to see the third movie, Snuffet, but this latest offering is another incredibly accomplished piece of guerrilla filmmaking. Actually, the term "guerrilla filmmaking" is a disservice to Mr. Mills. Time and time again, he somehow, almost impossibly, rises above the expectations the viewer has for a zero budget film and delivers a powerhouse of a chiller that blows away 95% or more of fare from his peers. Mills has an eye for talent, his ever moving camera capturing great performances from the small cast. There's no doubt that Mills creates fantastic roles for the female actor. Like in the earlier horror tale, Her Name Was Torment, the main protagonist is a woman. Here, Minnie Grey (who played a nun in Easter Casket) delivers an unnerving performance as the psychopathic photographer, Rose. Horror regular Joni Durian plays Rose's latest victim, Freya. I've seen so many blink-and-it's-over productions that when the titles for The Hornet's Sting appeared on the screen, I actually thought (for a moment) that the film had ended. I'd gone into this film completely cold and didn't know if it was an experimental short or a full movie. The pre-title sequence is incredibly professional, managing to evoke a jump from me by its use of sound alone. There are a few similarities with Her Name Was Torment but The Hornet's Sting is a very different movie. This is largely devoid of Mills' trademark puppetry although he does manage to squeeze in a very effective animated sequence around half way through the proceedings. With a soundtrack that juxtaposes happy, clappy songs with the most atrocious on-screen violence, this is not for the squeamish. The movie's wall-of-sound music is hallucinatory at times, placing the viewer in the centre of the action and creating a sense of discord. There's nudity aplenty in Hornet but this isn't cheap titillation. Rather than being an erotic or sleazy experience, this is genuine horror. About thirty minutes into the movie, I realised I'd not been this excited about a young filmmaker since the original releases of Jörg Buttgereit. What's more, Mills is the more accomplished director, and the more prolific. He's like a Cronenberg for the next generation. 9 out of 10.

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