We are all inherently scared of irrational things, many of which never stand an actual chance of hurting us. One of the finest examples: arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. These tiny insects are mostly harmless, even if their bites annoy, or the feeling lingers of accidentally walking into one of their intricately-spun webs by the light of the moon.
What happens when a spider not only carries a vicious bite, but also grows to a preposterous size? Sting is here to answer all your questions, blasting into an apartment building by asteroid to unleash a unique brand of chaos. For those spooked by spiders, steer clear—there is one sequence nasty enough to be compared to the pimple-popping urban legend. Bolstered by a properly creepy atmosphere, an intimate single-setting, and a horrifying giant spider, Sting will leave viewers itching to have their exterminator on speed dial.
Sting plays the trick of starting us near the ending before zipping back four days earlier. Aptly-named twelve-year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne, Nine Perfect Strangers, Children of the Corn) spends most of her free time tinkering with comic book creation Fang Girl with her devoted father, Ethan (Ryan Corr, Wolf Creek 2, House of the Dragon), who works double time as their creaky building’s maintenance man. Otherwise, Charlotte messes about with the dollhouse of her grandmother, Gunter (Robyn Nevin, Relic, Gods of Egypt), or explores the massive, mostly pristine system of vents adorned throughout her Brooklyn apartment building. A tiny asteroid-egg lands in said dollhouse, and hatches in a similar way to those nasty facehugger-eggs of the Alien franchise. From within it emerges an itsy-bitsy spider, who creeps and crawls along the tiny rooms in the film’s stylish opening title sequence.
Soon enough, Charlotte has swept up the creature, and dubbed it the name, Sting. Ethan and his wife, Heather (Penelope Mitchell, The Vampire Diaries, What You Wish For), are so distracted by their new baby that Charlotte gets pushed to the wayside a bit. As a result, she becomes obsessed with Sting, feeding it and nurturing the nasty-looking thing as it begins to grow. Writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner carefully molds this section as the bond between Sting and Charlotte grows. Sting, however, is very much a horror film. Suffice to say, this will be no Charlotte’s Web.
As the worst ice storm “in the state’s history” threatens to sweep in, the strange animal deaths and occurrences around the building reach a crescendo. Roache-Turner fills the place with a handful of interesting personalities and convenience, such as a researcher, an obsessive dog-mom, and an old grandma who cannot even seem to remember her own name. Exterminator Frank (Jermaine Fowler, The Blackening, Coming 2 America) shows up several times to spray for pesky bugs. As if it wasn’t enough to have one big spider, quite a few nasty cockroaches of the non-alien variety are still seen throughout the movie to add an extra layer of ick. Naturally, defeating Sting will not be easy. A zippy climax puts nearly every major character in peril, and builds to a satisfyingly perfect close.
Sting may not be as mean or dangerous as initially appears, and the body count stays relatively low for a creature feature. Do not expect Demons 2 but with spiders, or even the overt silly excess of Eight Legged Freaks. However, this little movie has plenty of creepiness to offer up. Its deaths are grisly, and the straightforward setting keeps the action firmly grounded. Special effects work impresses for such an indie offering. The father/daughter relationship tethers the overt outrageousness to a sliver of authenticity, clinging tightly to the stellar performances of Ryan Corr and Robyn Nevin. Don’t forget to stick around for a couple of fun moments during the closing credits!
Feel the Sting when this creature feature wraps you in its webs, exclusively in theaters on Friday, April 12th.
