Sting – A Fun and Campy Creature Feature (Early Review)

On a cold and stormy night in New York city, a mysterious tiny egg with a strange looking spider in it falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. Discovered by 12-year old Charlotte (Browne), she decided to raise the spider in secret. But as the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh eating monster, Charlotte is forced to face the truth about her new pet and fight for the survival of her family. Sting doesn’t reinvent the wheel in terms of creature features, and sometimes struggles at keeping a consistent tone, but it is nonetheless an undeniably fun B-movie and a nice throwback to a subgenre of horror that audiences don’t typically see anymore.

While Sting may not be very scary overall, but those who have a fear of spiders, it will definitely get under their skin and make many shiver. Everything revolving around the spider is well handled and feature the best scenes in the entire film. Some of its CGI is rather noticeable, but for the most part, the spider looks good, especially being a practical effect that is only showed sparingly. Meanwhile, the kills are surprisingly bloody and disturbing, while also being fairly over-the-top and campy. All in all, there is some genuinely gross and unsettling imagery on display as its third act is a lot of fun and pays homage to such films as Alien and Aliens,as well as other classics of the genre. The story’s apartment setting keeps things contained and the film does a great job at creating a real claustrophobic atmosphere.

Browne gives a terrific performance as Charlotte and truly carries the film well, showing range beyond her years. Though she might not always be the most likeable character, one can’t help but root for her survival. The only other actor who came closest to Browne was Jermaine Fowler as Frank the Exterminator. Fowler is hilarious whenever he’s on screen and the film could have easily used more of him and his sense of humour in this. Roache-Turner does an admirable job in the director’s seat, implementing some effective camera movements that help add to the level of uneasiness and uncertainty of the situation at hand.

Above all else, this is a decent little horror flick that’s worth a watch, but suffers from a bevy of issues that hold it back from being something truly special. The writing and dialogue can be pretty rough, and the acting outside of the aforementioned Browne and Fowler isn’t all that great either. It doesn’t help that there isn’t a single likeable character to be found. While it is more satisfying to watch when they get picked off, it feels like the film went out of there way to make every character into the least likeable version possible. Where it also struggles is with its tone, bouncing from a campy B-movie that doesn’t take itself too serious to a family drama about a stepfather and his stepdaughter. Frankly, it needed more of the former. It’s a noble attempt to flesh out its characters and their relationships more, but this just isn’t the type of movie where that is necessary.

At the end of the day, Sting won’t be for everyone but for those in the mood for a fun creature feature with a big spider running around an apartment building killing people, this will moe than get the job done. While it could have been a little less generic and maybe thrown a bit more spider carnage in there, for what was presumably made on a lower budget, the filmmakers did very well, considering their circumstances, in giving this dying genre a bit of a boost.

still courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/