The film column
Horror sci-fi Sting sees a lonely 12-year-old girl turn a strange spider into a pet that just keeps growing, eventually threatening her family and the neighbours. Think Alien, M3gan and effortless entertainment, says Simon Ings
Film
Kiah Roache-Turner In cinemas (US); Releasing 31 May (UK)
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A BRATTY 12-year-old girl. A feckless stepfather who loses her trust and feels increasingly out of place in his own home. Oh, and a giant spider. Kiah Roache-Turner, a newish director of horror, understands that real originality has almost nothing to do with who and what you put in front of the screen. What matters is how you set those elements dancing.
Like 2023’s killer-doll hit M3gan, with which it shares a certain antic humour, Sting cares about its characters. Charlotte (Alyla Browne) hero-worships her absent father, and this is slowly driving stepdad Ethan (Ryan Corr) up the wall, since he knows her real dad lives only half an hour away “across the bridge”. Brooklyn Bridge, New York, that is, where Sting is set. The film was, in fact, shot in Sydney, and takes place in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn, all drywall and ducts.
Ethan is a struggling comic book artist who ends up borrowing (and spoiling) Charlotte’s own much livelier ideas. When Charlotte’s pet spider (it arrived on a meteor during an ice storm – never a good sign) grows to man-eating size and drags Ethan off through an air duct, Charlotte, plugged into her earphones, her video games and her anger, simply fails to notice.
The scene tries to hit the sweet spot between horror and comedy that M3gan struck again and again. If it doesn’t quite succeed, it may have less to do with the writing or direction than with the film’s premise, which is, when you come down to it, very thin.
Comparisons with the original Alien are inevitable, if only because of the spider’s breakneck growth rate and all those ducts. And as far as the special effects g
