Blu-ray Review: Sting – “skittering stinging fun”

An aracno-horror written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, with a creature designed by WETA, and starring Furiosa’s Ayla Browne, Sting is released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on the 19th of August.

Charlotte (Browne) is a determined (read super annoying) tweenager, living with her mum and stepdad in a dilapidated apartment building in Australia, poorly masquerading as America. Lonely, when a tiny baby alien spider crashlands through the roof in a marble-sized meteorite, she adopts the arachnid and raises it in secret. The eight-legged creepy-crawly – named after Bilbos’s sword from The Hobbit – rapidly grows to terrifying proportions before munching down the other residents of Charlotte’s block.

Apart from our protagonist being extremely aggravating, a lot of other characters feel… off especially the evil stepdad, played by Wolf Creek 2’s Ryan Corr. His scary stand-in father figure begins as a put-upon schlubb, who is also the building’s superintendent, trying his best to provide a roof over Charlotte’s head and to be a positive male influence in her life. Strangely we quickly lose any sympathy for him when he quickly steps over the line with a temper and meanness that at times make him feel more of an antagonist than Sting.

Coupled with the frustratingly eye-rolling lead, there’s no one to root for, not even the spider, and, with events taking an eternity for a creature feature to kick off, it makes the first half of Sting a slog of a watch. A scene taken from the end of the film used as a cold open before we jump back in time, wisely gives a hint and hope of what’s to come to keep us waiting less impatiently, but it’s still a big ask for a B-movie audience.

When Sting is finally fully grown and unleashed there is some skittering stinging fun as Charlotte has to hunt down her former pet and save her jerk-off stepdad, and WETA’s effects are obviously top-notch, but it’s all pretty standard stuff that won’t be anything new for anyone who has ever seen a creature feature before.

Roache-Turner made a name for himself with brilliant Ozploitation zombie road movie Wyrmwood, but is yet to follow that assured and awesome debut with a step up or anything at least on the same level. His previous film, Nekrotronic, went the other way with too many ideas all at once and turned into a big mess. A sprinkle of that film’s weirdness could have made Sting a lot more fun and less rote.

A maddeningly obvious post-script promises more Sting’s, and if that does come to pass, let’s cross our fingers and fangs that Roache-Turner cuts loose a little and that Charlotte doesn’t return to the web.

A perfectly serviceable creature feature that is OK when it could have been a KO with a tweak and a bit of sauce, Sting is released on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK on the 19th of August.