Sting Review

“Can a spider grow twice as big in a couple of hours?” - Charlotte

I’m very fond of spiders. They’re much preferable to flies, which I dislike, and we’d be hip deep in flies, were it not for our helpful friends the spiders eating them. They get bad publicity in movies though having said that, Arachnophobia (1990) is a strong favourite of mine. And come on, where would the sci-fi movie industry be without Tarantula and Eight Legged Freaks, not to mention Kingdom of the Spiders?

Again, through the good offices of Fangoria and Starlog magazines, I would have been aware and eagerly anticipating this film way ahead of the release. (And this, boys and girls, is why I make a point NEVER to miss the trailers at the multiplex. How else would I know I have a shark movie called Something in the Water to look forward to sometime soon?)

This is no ordinary arachnid though, this is an eight-legged alien who finds itself on Earth when an asteroid passing close by fragments, and a small piece finds itself smashing through the window of a run-down tenement in New York during the biggest snow storm in years. The tenement is home to 12 years old Charlotte (Alya Browne – who looked familiar to me, unsurprising – the talented young actress plays the young Furiosa as a child in the film of the same name, which I saw last week). Charlotte (named, I guess after the character in Charlotte’s Web) is rebellious, loves comic books, feels neglected because of her baby step brother. She finds the small arachnid while crawling through the ventilation shafts in the old building to snoop around other people’s rooms. Deciding to adopt it, she names the creature Sting. She thinks it’s just an ordinary spider, having no idea it’s actually an alien. She starts feeding it cockroaches, and it starts to grow at an alarming rate. It can also mimic sounds and whistles and seems far more intelligent than an ordinary spider. (Though having said that, I don’t know how intelligent spiders tend to be.)

Soon, Sting can free himself out of his jar at will, and uses the crawlspaces to go hunting for more food, while continuing to grow after every meal, both physically and in ferocity.

The film surprised me on a few levels. First, the sheer skill in its cinematography. There are scenes, which Steve pointed out that have a technical reminiscence of Alfred Hitchcock about them, as we move around the tenement and go from room to room, floor to floor. Also, the film looked to be gloomily lit from the trailer, and yes – it is to a degree, but the gloom is used well to heighten the drama and tension. Third, here’s another Hitchcock touch – the deft blending of comedic elements with horror. But it isn’t a horror comedy – it’s more in the dialogue and realisation of some of the eccentric characters that make the audience smile before something horrifying happens. Hitchcock often employed the trick of relaxing an audience before shocking them, and director Kiah Roache-Turner shows he has mastered the technique here.

This was seen on a double bill with The Strangers: Chapter 1, and both films worked well together giving us three hours of pretty solid entertainment. Both are recommended, but if pressed for a favourite – I’d have to go with Sting, hence its higher rating.

Rob Rating = 8