Bite
(2015, dir: Chad Archibald; cast: Elma Begovic, Jordan
Gray, Annette
Wozniak, Denise Yuen, Lawrene Denkers, Daniel
Klimitz)
I assume that Bite
(2015) was a mistake. The film's director (Chad
Archibald) and writer (Jayme Leforest -- is that a
woman?) couldn't have known what they were making. This
is a Canadian horror film, after all, and
those Canuks are even more politically
correct than anyone in Manhattan or Hollywood. So
how is it that Archibald and Leforest have created a
Christian conservative allegory? A horror film that not
only condemns fornication and adultery, but primarily
blames the woman?
Casey (Elma Begovic) is
engaged to marry Jared (Jordan Gray). But that doesn't
mean he owns her or that she stops being a
Strong Independent Woman. This is a post-patriarchal
world. And so, though the wedding is but a week away,
Casey flies off with Jill and Kristen (Annette Wozniak
and Denise Yuen), for a "girls only" tropical paradise
vacation.
Now, cynics in the manosphere
contend that when women travel alone, or with just their
girlfriends, to exotic foreign lands, it's to "hook up"
with exotic foreign men for some hot, anonymous sex
(i.e., to fornicate), far from judgmental eyes back
home. And Casey does not disappoint. She gets drunk and
hooks up with "Mao" (Daniel Klimitz), a random beach
bum. She also gets
bitten by a bug while swimming in a lagoon. Hence the
film's title, Bite.
Casey returns to Canada where
she contemplates her sexual infidelity, feeling guilty,
fretting that she's not ready to marry Jared, and
yakking about it all to her girlfriends. Meanwhile, the
bite festers. Pus oozes from it. A rash spreads across
Casey's body. She aches and grows nauseous. Hair and
fingernails shed. Eventually she transforms into, well,
not exactly a giant fly. But Bite
does seem inspired by David Cronenberg's The
Fly (1986).
Thus does the insect bite,
and its resultant disease, work as a metaphor for
Casey's sexual sin.
And for the sins of others.
Jared is a religious conservative (like his mother) and
apparently a virgin. Tired of waiting, Casey seduces
Jared. Alas, her infected region breaks open during
their sex act, covering Jared's hand with pus. Their
fornication has now infected Jared.
In Monsters
from the Id, traditional Catholic author E.
Michael Jones argues that horror stories are essentially
about sinners (especially sexual sinners) who suffer
remorse without repentance. Casey regrets her
infidelity, but without repenting, or even acknowledging
the sin. It was a mistake. It was unhealthy for the
relationship. It is not who she is. It's anything but a
sin. And because she fails to repent, her sin
manifests in horror.
Sure, Jill encouraged Casey's
heavy drinking, and then arranged for her illicit tryst
with Mao, even recording it on a cell phone. Jill plans
to show the video to Jared and break up Casey's wedding.
Jill wants Jared for herself.
Having seen the video, Casey
exclaims to Jill, "You let that happen to me!"
But despite her refusal to
accept blame or responsibility, this does not absolve
Casey's infidelity. Why would she vacation
without her fiancé? Isn't it normal for couples
soon-to-marry to travel together? Why does
Casey dance with other men? Why allow herself to get
drunk? (For plausible denial?) Why hover so near to
opportunities for infidelity, if, in the back of her
mind, she isn't eager for a taste? Like an alcoholic who
just wants to smell the liquor, like an overeater who
just wants to look at the cake, Casey wants more than a
scent or a peek. She wants a bite.
This is why it doesn't matter
if Casey became infected before her tryst with
Mao. She had already committed adultery in her heart.
Scenes from her vacation video are presented in a
nonlinear sequence throughout Bite,
so we learn about her actions piecemeal. But it's clear
that she was already flirting with Mao, making googly
eyes at him, before she went to the lagoon.
Indeed, it was Mao who suggested that Casey visit the
lagoon. Had she ignored him, she wouldn't have been
bitten.
Despite being a Jewish
atheist, David Cronenberg's early horror films correlate
with Jones's Catholic interpretive
paradigm. Sexual sin creates horror. Indeed, Bite
seems inspired not only by The
Fly, but by other works from Archibald's fellow
Canadian filmmaker. In Cronenberg's Shivers
(1975), sexual promiscuity spreads a parasite throughout
a high-rise condo, turning everyone (even small
children) into sex-crazed rapists. In The
Brood (1979), a divorcée's rage (divorce is a sin,
remember?) causes monsters to sprout from her body. In
his 1983 essay, "Cronenberg:
A Dissenting View," film critic Robin Wood called
Cronenberg's sexual politics "reactionary." Jones might
add that that's what effective horror requires.
We live in a fallen world and
Satan has many helpers. Jill is every woman's toxic
girlfriend, hissing discontent and discord. Like the
serpent to Eve, feigning friendship, Jill whispers doubt
into Casey's ear, undermining her commitment to Jared. "He's
ready. But honey, you're not ready."
Kristen is another toxic
girlfriend, undermining Jared by advising Casey, "Seriously
sweetie, you need to sit Jared down, tell him this
workaholic act needs to stop." Jared is
honorable, handsome, loyal, and successful. He works
hard to make a nice life for Casey. When a woman lands
such a catch, you can be sure her girlfriends will be
there to find fault, subverting and sabotaging the
relationship.
Jill shows the video of
Casey's infidelity to Jared, then uses his sudden
heartbreak to "seal the deal" by seducing him. But
during their sex act, they vomit on each other. The
monstrously transformed Casey's high-pitched scream
provokes this, but their barfing still works as a
metaphor for their fornication. As with Eve biting into
the fruit, Casey's initial sin has sparked a chain
reaction of sin.
Bite
makes token attempts at political correctness. Jared's
mother (Lawrene Denkers) is a judgmental religious
conservative, with traditional views about a woman's
role. Berating Casey's domestic skills, Mrs. Kennedy
laments, "A woman doesn't run out of detergent."
She later snaps at Casey, "I asked you for one
thing. Do not soil my son out of wedlock."
Mrs. Kennedy is so
straight-laced, maybe she's intended as a PC swipe at
"religious hypocrisy"? But Bite
offers no instances of her hypocrisy and her judgments
are accurate. When she learns that Casey is pregnant,
she accuses, "I know that is not my son's child in
you." And she's right.
If Mrs. Kennedy is sour and
suspicious (aren't most movie Christians?), she has good
reason. She herself is a victim of her ex-husband's
adultery, as she reminds Jared. Jared insists that Casey
is different, but his religious conservative mom is
right. Casey is a skank. Mrs. Kennedy is also right to
try and evict Casey, whose monstrous transformation
kills the innocent. As with the Fall, the effects and
injuries of sin extend beyond the sinner.
After everyone is dead, fresh
bugs burst from Jared's corpse. In the final scene, two
young woman are jogging in Canada, discussing one
woman's upcoming trip to the tropical paradise of Costa
Rica. We don't know if she plans to travel alone, or how
she hopes to enjoy herself down there. But a bug bites
her leg.
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