Movie Review ~ Sting

As you might have guessed, I started my movie-going early in life. While most of the titles from growing up are little more than outlines of recollections that I squint hard to fill in the blanks for, many experiences are unforgettable. The first showing of Jurassic Park in June of 1993, the opening night of Martin Scorsese’s Cape Fear in 1991, watching the remake of House of Wax at the drive-in, seeing 1994’s Speed for the umpteenth time with a massive crowd including my best friend’s mom and hearing her squeal every time the speedometer dropped too low, and the Saturday summer night my family went to see Arachnophobia at our local second-run theater. That sold-out crowd in 1990 screamed and jumped in their seats, convinced the spiders had left the screen and invaded the theater. To this day, I’ve never heard an audience react with such visceral giddiness to the comedic terror they were witnessing.

Since then, many creature features have arrived and offered some bang for your buck, but with the advancement of CGI, the results were far less impressive. Something about the immediacy of a practical effect makes it scarier and more intense, even if deep down, you know it’s a rubber bug being pulled along by a string.  In recent years, there’s been an excellent return to form for effects technicians eschewing computer-generated creepy crawlies in favor of the real (or real-ish) deal and its produced quality work. In 2023, The Tank was a smashingly successful offering from New Zealand that relied heavily on a tangible threat. Now Well Go USA, the same studio that released that film (almost down to the day), has another story that makes you scared to check under your bed before sleeping.

Helmed by Kiah Roache-Turner, Sting is a refreshing and thrilling spectacle that gathers up suspense, horror, and mystery elements and spins a web tinged with dark humor. Paying commendable homage to a genre that has been putzing around in various stages in films like 1954’s Them!, Empire of the Ants from 1977, the campy Ticks in 1993, and the ahead-of-its-time Mimic from 1997, the detailed artistry of the practical effects ups the film’s scare factor, shredding the nerves (and nails) of its audience in the process.

On a stormy winter’s night in New York City, a mysterious egg plummets from the sky into a decrepit apartment complex, unleashing a tiny spider ready to cause big trouble. It starts a spine-chilling weekend where Charlotte (Alyla Browne), a 12-year-old comic book fan, finds and traps the spider she calls Sting. Living with her mom (Penelope Mitchell, Hellboy), stepdad Ethan (Ryan Corr, The Water Diviner), and baby brother, Charlotte is going through the frustrating adolescent phase where nothing is perfect, and no one can make it better. The denizens of the dilapidated apartment building are your standard colorful mix of lusty divorcees, dotty spinsters, cruel shrews, and quiet nerds. All are potential spider food for the arachnid that grows rapidly with each meal it consumes.

As Sting evolves into a formidable predator, Charlotte also transforms into more than a helpless child looking to adults for survival pointers. As the residents find themselves in a desperate battle for survival from a tricky monster, no space within the building is off-limits. Charlotte and others crawl through vents, walls, and ducts to wiggle free from Sting and stay out of its sticky web and constant need to feed.

Distinguishing itself through splendid employment of practical effects courtesy of the esteemed Wētā Workshop, renowned for its unparalleled craftsmanship in the realm of visual storytelling, Sting has a nice bite to it.  Is it the kind of sophisticated entertainment that makes for an unparalleled classic? Thanks to some uneven performances and a significant dip in pacing around the midpoint, likely not, but considering all the junk films that have come before it and will undoubtedly creep out of the woodwork after it, it’s an above-average winner that pays dividends if you are in the right frame of mind.

While the mid-sized ensemble cast delivers performances that walk the thin line between good and bad camp, there is a distinct energy to everyone’s presence that gives the film a crackle. As the stepfather working to connect with his stepdaughter while trying to hold down several careers, Corr provides the role with some heart and heft that anchors him at the center nicely. I also liked the weird performances of Noni Hazlehurst and Robin Nevin (Relic) as two very different biddies in residence, each taking a different approach to finding a voice for their characters.

The talented Jermaine Fowler (Ricky Stanicky, The Blackening) has a fun role as an exterminator called in for a small job only to find a massive problem waiting for him. However, the film rests squarely on the shoulders of Brown as Charlotte, and she carries the task with effortless ease. The script has the character bulging with emotions on top of the horror that awaits in the third act, and Brown manages to juggle all these situations without overshooting her target.

In many ways, Sting could be seen as the natural evolution of a film like Arachnophobia. Both feature a community dealing with the unexpected arrival of a spider that wreaks havoc on what had been a primarily idyllic existence. It shows that with all the technological advances and visual effects, the most effective way to scare a crowd is to put something real before them and then watch them scream. Under Roache-Turner’s unfussy direction, Sting rekindles a primal fear we have of the unknown and asks viewers to reflect on their fascination with creepy-crawly scares. Fans of the golden age of creature feature cinema, take note: this is one you’ll cheer for.  And if you like Sting, keep your eyes out for Infested, another spooky spider film that will have you clamoring for higher ground.