''Black Swarm'' is a 2007 Canadian

suspense film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

David Winning David Winning is a Canadian-American film and television director, screenwriter, producer, editor, and occasional actor. Although Winning has worked in numerous film and TV genres, his name is most commonly associated with science fiction, thr ...

. Actor

Robert Englund Robert Barton Englund (born June 6, 1947) is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the supernatural serial killer Freddy Krueger in the ''A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise), Nightmare on Elm Street'' film series. Class ...

plays a mysterious beekeeper who has a secret to hide in the small town of Black Stone. It is the 9th film of the ''

Maneater Series ''Maneater Series'' is the name, logo and line look given to a series of made-for-television natural horror films on DVD produced by RHI Entertainment for the Syfy Channel, and distributed by Vivendi Entertainment. The Maneater Series logo and ...

''.

Plot

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...

, Deputy Sheriff Jane Kozik, moves from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

to Black Stone,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, with her nine-year-old daughter Kelsey Kozik. There, she expects to find a safe place to live. The day after moving, a

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

man is found dead in the tool shed of Jane's blind friend Beverly Rowe. Devin Hall and the

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

Katherine Randell are summoned to help with the investigation. Devin is Jane's brother-in-law and former boyfriend, and Jane still has a crush on him. Meanwhile, Kelsey befriends the scientist Eli Giles, who has developed

genetically modified Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the gene ...

wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

for the army as a weapon, and now he is trying to revert the process. When the wasps attack Black Stone, Jane, Devin and Eli team-up to attempt to destroy the

swarm Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...

Cast

Sebastien Roberts Sebastien Roberts is a French-Canadian actor of television and film, working in both French and English projects since 2000. Early life, education, and career He was born Sébastien Robert in Montreal. Robert's family moved from Montreal ...

as Devin Hall *

as Eli Giles *

Sarah Allen Sarah Allen is a Canadian actress. She studied acting at the National Theatre School of Canada and graduated in 2002. ''Being Human'' Allen is perhaps best known for playing vampire Rebecca Flynt on SyFy's '' Being Human''. For the role ...

as Jane Kozik * Rebecca Windheim as Kelsey Kozik *

Jayne Heitmeyer Jayne Heitmeyer is a Canadian actress appearing in many science fiction and horror movies and TV shows. Heitmeyer was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She is known for playing Lt. Briony Branca in the second season of ''Night Man'', Jessie Jawo ...

as Katherine Randell

Production

The movie was filmed in Montreal and surrounding small towns in July and August 2007. It is the 9th film of the ''

''.

Release

It was released on DVD by

Genius Entertainment Genius Products (also known as Genius Entertainment) was an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California, United States. The ''Baby Genius'' line was one of a number of "smart toys" that came out in response to a study book about the ...

on February 3, 2009.

Reception

Scott Foy of

DreadCentral Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website ...

rated it 3.5/5 and called it "an above average effort from the Sci-Fi Channel that never insults your intelligence even though it does have its fair share of logic gaps." Laura Burrows of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

rated it 4/10 and called it "an awful film" with "terrible CGI". Patrick Bromley of

DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...

describes it as having "terrible CGI effects" and "cheesy plotting and non-existent acting". Justin Felix of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

called it a "celluloid atrocity", though he stated that it has a "certain Ed Wood B-movie charm to it.".

References

External links

* * {{Maneater 2007 television films 2007 horror films 2000s English-language films Films directed by David Winning Maneater (film series) Sonar Entertainment films Syfy original films 2007 films Canadian horror television films English-language Canadian films Canadian natural horror films Films shot in Montreal Films set in New York (state) 2000s American films 2000s Canadian films