Sting-2024

Director Kiah Roache-Turner

Starring Alyla Browne, Ryan Corr

Scott’s Review #1,436

Reviewed August 18, 2024

Grade: B-

Sting (2024) is a lightweight but suspenseful, late-night horror flick. It takes a bit to get going and at only a one hour and thirty minute running time that’s too long for it to take off and have a satisfying effect.

The set designs are the best part as the wintery Brooklyn, New York atmosphere pairs well with the dingy and stuffy walk-up apartment complex where the action occurs and a family lives.

The dusty rooms, creaking floors, and walls are well-done thanks to dim lighting and a secluded vibe. I bought that the family lives this way but felt cozy thanks to these trimmings.

As with seemingly most modern horror films the plot doesn’t make much sense nor is it plausible.

To compare Sting to other films it plays like Arachnophobia (1990) with a dash of Alien (1979) thrown in but is inferior to those films lacking either the campy humor or the wonderful special effects.

The film is not scary but at most thrilling.

Sting reintroduces a spider as the protagonist with marginal success. The spider starts innocently but grows into a sinister carnivore with human beings as its desired menu item.

Events surround twelve-year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) who obtains a pet spider who becomes her pride and joy and who she names Sting. Once she realizes that Sting plans to eat her entire family Charlotte goes into protector mode and must fight for their survival.

Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, an Australian director unknown to me she uses mostly Australian actors.

Sting starts well with a scene involving an elderly tenant named Helga who begins to hear noises in the walls and assumes they are rats. She calls a local exterminator.

Helga has dementia and the audience quickly realizes she has already called an exterminator but has forgotten. The investigating exterminator is snatched by an unknown force and dragged into the wall canals of the old building.

Then Roache-Turner takes us back to four days prior.

This point immediately made me invested in the film especially when other characters are introduced and we learn the connection to Helga.

What’s going to happen in the next four days?

Unfortunately, Sting loses steam from this point introducing marginally interesting characters. Charlotte, her overworked stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr), her clueless and frazzled mother, Heather (Penelope Mitchell), and her creepy German Aunt Gunter (Robyn Nevin).

Stock characters like a boozy Spanish neighbor, the weird Asian kid upstairs, and the comical black exterminator are included.

Hey, at least diversity was added.

The only likable character is Ethan. He struggles to connect with the bratty Charlotte through graphic novels, and the demands put upon him by Heather’s family who do not like him for some reason.

The poor guy serves as the building superintendent, works a day job, attempts to do creative work by night, and is a surrogate father. Sounds like a hero to me.

The point of the family drama only adds filler to the already slow-paced film and has nothing to do with the main event of Sting eating the family.

Charlotte is quite unlikable and I rooted for Sting to turn on her and make her its next victim. She mostly pouts and broods and has a sense of entitlement. I’m not sure why Roache-Turner made the character this way and should have softened her.

Events do pick up towards the end when finally a character is killed and the others accosted and put into webs presumably to be dined on later.

Since Charlotte is the character we are supposed to root for and I hated her this was anticlimactic.

Predictably but also clever is how a perfect sequel setup occurs at the end. I’m not sure Sting is good enough to warrant a sequel but box office receipts will determine this.

Sting (2024) is entertaining and fun but little more. I’ve already started to forget about it.