Sting of Death (1965)

“Sting of Death”'s premise is 60's B-horror: A killer monster ambushes a group of college party-goers on an isolated island during spring break. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't have a heck of lot going for it aside from said killer monster. Also, whether intentional or not, this movie doesn't follow the conventional 60's B-horror formula. My theory is that this odd formula is due to there being two writers working on this movie, Al Dempsey and William Kerwin. After “Sting of Death,” Dempsey went on to do nothing. On the other hand, Kerwin went on to have a successful stage, movie and TV career. That difference shows strikingly. The best way to show this difference is by splitting the movie into two halves.

Karen & her friends get ready to
engage in protracted & unnecessary
party scenes, sorta like every single
fucking movie I've reviewed this
month.

We open to the Florida Everglades where Dr. John Hoyt (Joe Morrison) is planning a reunion party for his daughter Karen (Valerie Hawkins). Hoyt, Karen, and a cast of unimportant characters engage in some playful banter about how excited they are for the party. Among these characters is Hoyt's misfit lab assistant, Egon (more about him later). This form of character establishment is an utter bore. You could picture this “playful banter” scene going on for 3, perhaps 5 minutes at the most, right? Well, try twenty straight minutes of this. To boot, there aren't even any minor conflicts among Karen and the cast of faceless partygoers. Between all the notes I took on “Sting of Death,” I lost count of how many times I typed the phrase “STOP TALKING!”

This abysmal opening is (just barely) saved by one thing: throughout the conversations, Hoyt has a hideous, overgrown mole the size of a half-dollar on his forehead.

No, I'm not kidding. While the movie strolls along at its leisurely pace, Hoyt sports the frightening black growth nonchalantly. It shows itself prominently all throughout the first thirty minutes, and it's nothing less than a small miracle in the world of B-movies. It is as strangely hypnotic as it is disgusting; as hilarious as it is genuinely concerning. The mole cuts through banal dialogue and rivets your attention to it. I shudder as I type about it. (Seriously, what the hell!? You couldn't just wait the 3 months needed for the thing to heal?! What?!!)

At around the halfway mark, however, “Sting of Death” begins to pick up as the movie focuses in on Egon, a depressed and reclusive man obsessed with pushing the limits of Hoyt's marine biology experiments. Take a moment to think about the aforementioned killer monster, and then back to what I just said. Unless you have an IQ of negative W, you should be able to draw the connection immediately. Hoyt and his colleagues never connect A and B together, instead assuming that Egon is an “odd seed.” This goes on for the entire movie, even during the vital horror scenes. It's hilarious. Despite the unintentional comedy surrounding his invisible status, Egon is an extremely interesting character. Once it's established that Egon has unrequited love for Karen, he basically becomes a ramped-up version of Torgo from “Manos: the Hands of Fate.” (In "Manos," Torgo is an awkward, hilariously-underplayed maniac with unrequited love for a female protagonist.)

John Vella invests a great deal of effort into portraying Egon. The unfortunate man's history is never explained, and he's never truly respected as an equal among Hoyt and his crew. From the moment he's rejected at the beach party to the moment he's rejected by Karen, you can see our anti-hero's inner turmoil build and build, resulting in an emotional and bittersweet ending.

On top of all of this, “Sting of Death” has a few excellent horror scenes. William Kerwin is well-known as Detective Pete Thornton in the 60's cult classic “Blood Feast”, and it shows. These scenes feature intense dramatic build-up and fake gore especially graphic for the 60's. Director William Grefe did a decent job given his budget, but when he hits, he hits hard.

In “Sting of Death,” it literally felt as though William Kerwin kicked Al Dempsey off the set halfway through and did everything in his power to revive the movie. I truly wish I could have rated the movie a 6 or a 7, but the first half of the movie is one hundred percent fast-forwardable. It's a shame, too, because Kerwin did an excellent job, here. I feel just as sorry for this movie as I do for Egon.