Sting review
Take one-part Gremlins, one-part Alien and one-part family drama…mix it all together and you get Sting.
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Sting
Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner
Written by Kiah Roache-Turner
Starring Penelope Mitchell, Alyla Browne, Ryan Corr, Silvia Colloca, Noni Hazlehurst, Jermaine Fowler and Robyn Nevin
Sting Review
It doesn’t always work out. At least, it doesn’t always work out as well as it does in Sting. I’m not talking about keeping an alien spider-like creature for a pet…that probably never works out. I’m talking about the choice to dip a movie’s toe into several different genres. Sting is a horror comedy sci-fi family drama. Imagery influenced by Gremlins and Alien combine with ideas from Arachnophobia and Evil Dead Rise to present…a family drama? There are a lot of things on Sting’s plate. Things that don’t blend easily. But it works out here more than it doesn’t.
The gambit does limit the potential for any one idea to work as well as it could. Sting would be scarier without the comedy…and funnier without the horror. As a package, however, the movie does a fine job creating an even tone for itself. There is a lot of fun to be had with what the movie is doing. It evokes the movies above in ways that feel nostalgic and complete. Something that the new Ghostbusters, for example, struggles with.
There are probably half a dozen reasons that it works better here than you expect. The comedy is smarter than it needs to be. The opening scene shows us an old lady’s barren apartment. She appears to have Alzheimer’s and calls an exterminator to help with noises coming from inside her walls. The exterminator claims to know her…and that he was just there to deal with her pet parrot. “I don’t have a parrot” the lady responds. Flash back four days earlier and we learn that not only did the woman have a parrot…she lived with her sister and a cat. Sting gives us the punchline before telling us the set-up. We understand the tone the movie is going for immediately. Now…we get to sit back and watch what happened.
Sting isn’t the story of an ordinary spider. We watch a meteor fall to earth and land, the size of a tiny spider, through the old lady’s window. Her granddaughter Charlotte (who traverses vents in the apartment building like John McClane on speed) discovers and adopts the spider. She cares for it…even when it doubles in size in just a few hours. Charlotte is a very smart and capable girl…which makes her choices with the spider (who she names Sting) feel out of character. Charlotte is our main character…and her familial drama is at the heart of this horror-comedy.
Ethan (Ryan Corr) is Charlotte’s stepfather. He tries everything he can to connect with her but can’t seem to break through with a girl who idolizes her absentee father. A new baby complicates things further. Both for Charlotte and when you’re watching a movie where a soon to be giant spider starts picking off people and animals at every turn. The drama parts of Sting work well enough. They allow for some decent, if obvious, payoffs. Mostly they work as another layer to the entire package. Enough to connect to while laughing and checking the corner for spider legs…but not enough to get in the way.
Writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner wears the genre influences above firmly on his sleeve. He manages to keep all those plates spinning too. Sting has a distinct style to it…even if that style is achieved by throwing those aforementioned four films into a blender. It’s done with enough love and care to feel like an homage to a lot of movies we love. While it would be interesting to see how the story would have played out as a full comedy or a straight horror picture…Sting’s tone is one of the film’s greatest strengths.
Roache-Turner fills the apartment complex with characters just memorable enough to be rooting for or against them when the spider comes crawling. The character beats earn many of the laughs. A motor-mouthed exterminator, an evil slum lord, a science major who immediately recognizes that a spider doesn’t have vocal cords so Sting’s ability to mimic sounds is a giant red flag… Like the family drama…the supporting cast of characters is just colorful enough to accomplish their purpose without overwhelming the story. There is a bit of a problematic theme regarding these comic relief side characters…one that is difficult to miss. Let’s just say Sting doesn’t treat its minority characters with the most respect. It doesn’t feel like this was done mean spiritedly…but it is there.
The trailer below does a decent job introducing the world of Sting. Throw in some effective comedic moments and you’ll have a good idea what you’re in for. You’ll also know if it’s something that you are interested in seeing right away. It doesn’t lean into the creepy spider stuff as much as you’d expect. The story is more absurd than that. Sting knows it. That’s why it works.
Scare Value
Sting knows what it’s doing. It could be funnier or scarier had it chosen to stick to one lane. The tonal choice pays off often enough to succeed. Not everything works perfectly…but it gels into something fun to watch. A little something for everyone…and one big spider.
3/5
Sting Link
In theaters April 12 – Fandango
