Mega Scorpions (2003) User Reviews

Where is the giant bugmonster?

[gacsogergely · 3/10 · 30 April 2022]

They promised some 1950-style giant bugs. Those are as large as HOUSES. Here, they don't even have any bug, what there is appears shortly, and maybe as big as a dog, though it is inconsistent, sometimes they are the size of an adult.

The directing is even worse. Absolute incompetency on that field. Just the first scene has so many glaring errors it's too much.

Fail to see the comedy anywhere also, so this offers nothing to suggest watching, aside how not to make movie. Oh, and the after ending scene is just gross. Not funny, not erotic - simply gross.

Not very good 'Creature Feature'.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 3 February 2010]

Deadly Stingers is set in a small US town where toxic waste has been illegally dumped for years, the local Scorpion population has grown into six foot long killers as a result. A young girl named Joey (Sarah Megan White) witnesses the death of fellow teenager Eric (Jeff Dylan Graham) by said giant Scorpion but strangely enough her elder sister Alice (Marcella Laasch) doesn't believe her & neither does Sheriff Evans (Stephen O'Mahoney) when he comes calling after finding the mutilated remains of Eric. As more local residents are killed by the Scorpions a group of teenage parolees becomes trapped in a halfway house as they try to fight the hungry killer Scorpions off...

Co-written, produced & directed J.R. Bookwalter & executive produced by our old friend Charles Band I would guess that Deadly Stingers was a homage to the fun monsters films of the 50's & the like with there giant bugs of various descriptions on the loose, here the makers chose Scorpions & while not a complete waste of time I didn't think it was particularly good. The plot is very thin with nothing more than toxic waste mutated Scorions on the loose killing the bit-part character's, a little bit of plot depth was attempted with an evil Mayor & his hand puppet the Sheriff but both are killed off very quickly & nothing becomes of it & the sub-plot about a woman being killed & someone sent to prison for five years also goes nowhere. At just over 70 minutes at least it's short but with a fairly repetitive & predictable plot that's a blessing & while Deadly Stingers is gorier than similar creature feature output by the likes of the Sci-Fi Channel it's still silly, badly thought out without a sense of fun or humour & just doesn't feel like a 50's monster film even though it's obviously modelled itself on one. The one notable aspect is the amount of gore & the silly way the Scorpions are dispatched but overall Deadly Stingers isn't any better than any other low budget creature feature out there.

As mentioned there's a fair bit of blood here with melted bodies, blood splatter & various Scorpion claws & tails going through people's bodies. The effects vary, the on-set puppet effects range from average to awful while the CGI computer effects are uniformly awful which just doesn't help, I mean the monster films from the 50's generally had effects that were no worse (no better either to be fair though) than those on show in Deadly Stingers. I always thought the big argument for CGI as a film-making tool was that it was cheap, quick & produced better results than traditional effects work but that clearly isn't the case as far as I can see. I want to know the cool looking film Joey & Eric are watching featuring a stop-motion animated two tailed Scorpion monster at the start on telly as it looks better than Deadly Stingers itself.

The IMDb says Deadly Stingers had a budget of about $150,000 & I don't disbelieve that as this has low, low budget written all over it with cheap effects work & production values. Apparently filmed in Los Angeles. The acting is poor all round from no-one of any note.

Deadly Stingers is obviously a homage to the giant bug films of the 50's but with added gore & terrible CGI computer work & the fact that Charles Band was involved should be enough to tell you that this isn't particularly good. Sure it's short but is that enough to recommend it?

lots of fun

[WankerReviews · 5/10 · 1 October 2019]

Typical B horror with comedy elements. Cheesy over acting, bad cgi, but entertaining and fun to watch. The fact that the characters tried to figure out different ways to kill the giant scorpions, by reading up on them was great. They weren't just dumb characters doing dumb things to move the plot along. And people who you thought would survive til the end die unexpectedly. There was one blonde character who was annoying and useless, and her actions lead to someone else getting killed, which disappointed me.

So bad.

[13Funbags · 2/10 · 10 April 2020]

This site claims that this movie is a comedy and an homage to the old giant bug movies from the 50s. It's far from being either. You only know it's supposed to be funny because they play whimsical music when you are supposed to laugh. Trust me, you won't laugh. The only thing it has in common with any 50s giant bug movie is that the "heroes" are very unlikely. The few funny things in this movie weren't even intended to be funny. The first victim has potted trees in his front yard, so they could return them after the shoot. And the sheriff wants to get a search warrant to make people talk to him. That's not how search warrants work. The end doesn't even make any sense. Nothing gets resolved. This is not the type of movie anybody should be watching.

giant scorpions, how can that be bad?

[knick666 · 20 June 2003]

i watched this movie at the flashbacks horror convention in park ridge il at the pickwick theater and it was really nice. its about these people that dump toxic waste in a desert and these scorpions get into it and turn in to huge 6 foot mutant scorpions. then they go around and kill people and these young adults in a mental home get blamed for it. the gore is good, as allways is in a bookwalter movie. when this bad boy comes out, buy it. 7 out of 10

Poorly written and acted

[geraldleejones-20639 · 3/10 · 19 October 2023]

Sorry to say this was not a homage to anything. The storyline was very poorly written with dialogue sounding like a middle school play. The characters are seriously annoying with zero likeability, with no charms to gain viewer sympathy, The main protagonist, the halfway house director is shrill, nasty and rude with none of the qualities of a analyst or counselor and the chief suspect is worthy of suspicion due to his utterly lack of believability, he seems like a potential gruesome ax murderer. The other "patients" are overplayed characters right out of every old stereotype of a deranged pyscho. Very disappointing and a real let down of my hopes and expectations for this film.

A definite "must see".

[jse001 · 10/10 · 28 June 2003]

This film is for those of you who like the ingredients of Sci-Fi mixed with horror and a sprinkle of comedy. The wonderfully written and directed storyline keeps you involved and begging for more. The actors brilliantly bring the characters into reality and the special effects are first-rate. This film is a definite `must see'.

stinkers or stingers?

[lloydkaufmanlover · 15 July 2003]

I saw this bad boy at Flashback Weekend in Chicago area. It looked like it had a good budget so it looked nice but it was an awful film. The acting was horrible and the direction seemed off at times but on at others. But the budget seemed to be big. The effects weren't that great either which is big in this type of film. I wouldn't give it another minute of my time so if the end of the world comes and this is the only movie left to watch then I'm killing myself.