‘’Sting’’ Is A Horror Movie That Falls Short
It could have been so much better
I do love a creature feature movie, and after watching Infested, which I quite enjoyed, I gave another new spider horror movie a watch, Sting.
Premise
In a New York apartment, a small meteorite crashes through a window, revealing an egg that hatches into a spider. Charlotte, a 12-year-old girl discovers and befriends the spider, keeping it hidden from everyone else in the building. But soon, the spider starts causing a little bit of chaos!
Relatable But Under Developed Characters
The film combines elements that are both easy and hard to enjoy. At its core, it’s really a family drama about Charlotte and her troubled relationship with her stepdad, Ethan, where she feels ignored and worries he might leave like her real father did.
The characters are relatable, and the family dynamics do feel real, and I enjoyed seeing Charlotte bonding with the spider.
While the subplot involving the strained family dynamics does give some context and direction, the insufficient development of characters outside of Charlotte and Ethan reduces any real emotional investment in the story and diminishes the impact of the eventual resolution and realization.
Lacks Identity
The problem is though, the film can’t decide what kind of horror movie it wants to be. It swings between being intentionally cheesy and trying to be serious, and this makes it feel a bit all over the place.
Some scenes seem to be there just to shock and don’t really add much to the story, while other scenes that are needed for understanding the creature’s behavior, are skipped over completely.
This confusion also affects how Charlotte is portrayed. Even though she’s just a typical preteen, it is hard to understand her role and this inconsistency makes it difficult to connect with her until the film suddenly changes direction and wants us to support her.
Creature Design
The CGI used for the spider, especially when it’s small, doesn’t work too well, and its artificial nature is very noticeable, which can detract from its effectiveness depending on how fussy you are.
Thankfully they did not use CGI effects throughout the entire film, so it got better as the film went on and when they do switch to practical effects once the spider grows larger, and this actually works so much better.
Good Direction
While writer and director, Kiah Roache-Turner won’t be winning any originality awards for Sting, the direction is pretty good and should be praised.
The camera navigation through the building and ducts while Sting prowls and attacks both animals and humans as it grows larger is great to watch and the scenes are pretty well staged overall.
Lacks Any Real Impact
Sting presents a promising yet simple concept that should have delivered plenty of enjoyable moments that play on people’s arachnophobia, I mean, it is a spider themed horror movie after all, but, for me, it fell short.
And while the family drama does add some depth, it has trouble finding its balance and the film doesn’t really know what it wants to be.
Still, it offers some entertainment, especially for fans of creature features, but it could have been much better.
And if you care at all about movies bringing some originality to the table, you will want to skip this one completely.
Sting currently has a 5.7 rating on IMDB, which I think is pretty accurate.
Check out a couple of my other horror movie reviews
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