"STING" (2024)

by Joseph Perry and Mike Imboden

In our “The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict” film reviews, Joseph and Mike give their thoughts on a slice of cinema. For this installment, it’s an arachnophibic’s nightmare as they watch STING, written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner.

Synopsis

STING spins a web of thrilling terror as 12-year-old Charlotte’s pet spider rapidly transforms into a giant flesh-eating monster, forcing the young girl to fight for her family’s survival.

The Good

Joseph: Roache-Turner gifts creature feature aficionados with plenty of spider attack creepiness, with the titular alien arachnid looking good in both its practical and CGI forms. Its growth in both size and intelligence are fun to watch unfold. The aftermath of its attacks are suitably gruesome, thanks to fine work by the special effects, visual effects, and makeup crews. The cast members all give solid performances, though the characters and dramatic situations with which they are saddled are another story, as you will see in my comments below.

Mike: What we’ve got here in STING is a nice, old-fashioned monster flick. There’s no overly complicated explanations for the titular spider - everything you need to know about its origin is quickly explained after an in media res opening,

a brief discovery as the second act begins, and a third act that brings it all together, complete with a classic ending that leaves the door open for a follow up.

The acting is what it needs to be with everyone portraying their varied characters quite well regardless of how important they are to the overall story. The practical effects are quite well done, with full-sized Sting being an appropriately scary looking arachnid, and the way he captures his prey reminiscent of how the Xenomorphs from Aliens cocooned the marines. There’s not a ton of blood or gore, but the slime and webbing Sting leaves behind is quite goopy and sloppy and suitably gross.

The Bad

Joseph: Ugh, there are no characters for whom to root in this film, except for grandmother Helga (Noni Hazelhurst ), who is suffering from dementia, and comedy relief exterminator Frank (Jermaine Fowler), the latter of whom also gave me pause once he started panicking. Charlotte (Alyla Browne) is a defiant brat against everyone, her stepdad Ethan (Ryan Corr) comes across as a self-obsessed jerk, her mom Heather (Penelope Mitchell) seems more obsessed with work and arguing with Ethan than anything else, Aunt Gunter (Robyn Nevin) is practically a vaudevillian villain — you get the picture. Good drama makes for good horror films, but this messy family drama with unlikable characters just didn’t work for me. I also found several elements — especially Charlotte coming on like Ellen Ripley and the tired, clichéd final reveal — to be wholly unoriginal. By the way, Charlotte at one point sadly says that everything is her fault — and she is darned right it is! Finally, I’m not sure why so many f-bombs were dropped, unless the filmmakers and producers wanted to assure themselves of an R rating.

Mike: There isn’t much to dislike about STING unless you’re afraid of spiders and if that’s the case maybe you should rethink your film choices.

I will say that, having worked in the comic book business to some degree, there’s no way the book featured would garner an increase in 45,000 copies as stated. I also doubt a professional illustrator would be using pages torn from a sketchbook unless he was scanning the pages into a digital format - but then again, if he was doing that he wouldn’t be drawing with a blue pencil in the first place. Most people aren’t going to care about this and it, of course, doesn’t affect the movie at all (but I’ve got to put SOMETHING in this section!)

The Verdict

Joseph: Admittedly, my viewing of STING was partially jaded by having recently watched and reviewed the far superior French spider attack film Infested, which boasts better spider effects and attacks, and much better drama. That said, looking at STING on its own merits, Roache-Turner does an admirable job at the helm and knows his way around building tension, crafting a creature feature that delivers enough spider mayhem and related practical effects and makeup work to give it a recommendation.

Mike: If you’ve been looking for a decent monster flick and aren’t liable to lose your mind at the site of a spider, then STING should work for you. Effective practical effects highlight the whole affair that is evenly paced - a little slow in the first act, but picking up until it reaches its final confrontation between arachnid and humans - and never bogs down with meaningless exposition or runtime padding.

This is certainly worth a watch.