Written & Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner
Cast: Ryan Corr, Alyla Browne, Penelope Mitchell,
Robyn Nevin, Noni Hazelhurst,
Silvia Colloca, Danny Kim, Jermaine Fowler
Creature design by
2023 / Australia / 91 mins
Creature feature films are my cup of tea, they tick all the horror boxes for a frightening fun time. This subgenre deals with unworldly things that deal with harm and destruction. Sometimes, these films have underlying messages about the damage humans are doing to the world and ourselves.
STING is written & directed by Kiah Roache-Turner(Wyrmwood, Wyrmwood: Apocalypse) and stars Ryan Corr(Wolf Creek 2), Alyla Browne(Three Thousand Years of Longing), and Penelope Mitchell(Hellboy 2019).
One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the
window The window belongs to Charlotte (yes, this is a nice Charlotte’s Web reference), a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. She discovers a strange spider with many odd talents. Charlottle names the spider “Sting”, which is a tip of the hat by Roache-Turner to The Lord of the Rings.
Charlotte. who feels isolated in the run-down apartment building, quickly connects with her newfound eight-legged friend. Her mother and stepfather Ethan are distracted by their new baby, they are struggling to keep their sanity. Despite this, Ethan(Corr) tries to connect with the young girl by creating a comic book together entitled “Fang Girl’.
Charlotte keeps her new friend Sting secret from her family, but this gets difficult as the creature spider is growing at a monstrous rate. Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable. Neighbours’ pets start to go missing, and then the neighbours themselves. Soon Charlotte’s family and the eccentric characters of the building realise that they are all
trapped, hunted by a ravenous supersized arachnid with a taste for human flesh… and Charlotte is the only one who knows how to stop it.
STING is a film that leans into its “creature feature” dynamics. Like in Roache-Turner’s previous horror foray Wyrmwood, there are flesh-grinding blood-drenching effects. Weta Workshop handles the effects (including the creature Sting) and like their previous work, the audience is in for an astonishing practical effects display.
The isolation of the apartment building is the perfect setting for a film like this. There are a handful of very magnificent scenes which pay tribute to director James Cameron’s body of work (See if you can pick them out). This isn’t a distraction, but rather a holy s%^t moment when the realization hits, isn’t that just like in…
There’s some mild dark humour in the film, but this is a horror film through and through. This elevates the tension and makes it a must-see (at least in my books). The collection of characters is believable and never one-dimensional. There is the rebellious 12-year-old, the busy mother, the overworked, try-to-hard stepfather, and the Charolltes’ grandmother Helga, who is suffering from Alzheimers. Many of the characters evolve throughout the movie (the ones that survive that is), There are a handful of other characters, which add to the fun and move the story along, but the core cast is above.
STING, is a strong film, with three acts and all of them play out perfectly. The effects are truly creepy, made all the more grotesque by the huge alien arachnid. Alyla Browne who plays Charlotte, is a strong lead and carries the movie over the finish line with expert ease. Although spiders are known for their bite, STING will make you believe their sting is worse than their bite.
