Sting, 2024.
Written and Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner.
Starring Ryan Corr, Alyla Browne, Penelope Mitchell, Robyn Nevin, Noni Hazlehurst, Silvia Colloca, Danny Kim, Jermaine Fowler, Alcira Carpio, Tony J. Black, and Rowland Holmes.
SYNOPSIS:
After raising an unnervingly talented spider in secret, 12-year-old Charlotte must face the facts about her pet and fight for her family’s survival when the once-charming creature rapidly transforms into a giant, flesh-eating monster.
Writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner’s creature feature Sting is unsure if it wants to lean into the absurdity of the situation and turn everything (including a dementia-ridden grandma) into a joke or play up the domestic drama at the center, primarily fixated on a rocky stepfather-daughter dynamic.
Barring the presence of goofy exterminator Frank (an amusing Jermaine Fowler giving off some Marlon Wayans horror-spoof energy), there also doesn’t appear to be a sound reason for Sting to be so jokey. It’s not particularly funny watching an elderly woman alone and going through the motions of calling for help, unaware that the loud noise interrupting her TV show is an overgrown spider with a taste for humans and tying them into webs inside the labyrinthine apartment complex ventilation shaft. By the same token, some curmudgeonly cruel relatives also appear exaggerated.
Then there is also a deadpan scientist (Danny Kim) conveniently doing biological research, becoming a source of advice and information on the spider (before it enlarges and starts killing people), frustratingly as dry as a school lecture. Mainly an Australian production working with distributor Well-Go USA, who typically release Korean films, it almost feels as if the filmmakers were forced to shove this actor in there when English might not even be his first language. It would certainly explain the awkwardness of it all.
Front and center of this bizarre cast of characters is Alyla Browne’s Charlotte (I wish I was joking), missing her father while also worrying that her stepfather Ethan (Ryan Corr) will fall into the same tone of abandonment to focus on her baby brother. There is also some shaky trust; Charlotte routinely advises Ethan on his comic book illustrations, which he pretends to like before immediately erasing her changes once she leaves the room.
Charlotte’s new best friend and pet becomes a mysterious spider. She secretly observes it and learns about it, such as its ability to mimic other wildlife sounds. She feeds the spider bugs. When she is away, the spider searches for larger food and bigger challenges. The point is that not much happens, arguably worse than the film’s unwillingness to take a lane between comedy and drama. Sting is not scary, either.
The kindest compliment to pay Sting is that it cleverly handles its media’s res opening so that it doesn’t entirely give away who will be alive and dead once we catch up. If anything, it sets up some intrigue, especially regarding a “fucked-up looking parrot.” It also wouldn’t be fair to dismiss the respectable practical effects and makeup outright, notably for the death scenes. Unfortunately, it is also an unforgivably dull film, even with its tonal confusion. There is one sequence of sustained suspense toward the end, which is primarily effective because, by that point, Sting does work out how to blend those tones into a survival scenario. Everything before that has no sting.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
