‘Sting’ review: A creature feature with barely any creature

When it comes to horror, people will revel in slashers brutally murdering people, eyes getting gouged out, and nasty demonic possessions, but there is one line most will not cross: spiders. 

Arachnophobia is one of the most common phobias, and for good reason. With their long, creepy eight legs and extreme variance in size (the goliath bird-eating spider weighs around 5-6 ounces), spiders are a crawling nightmare that already haunts people’s everyday lives. It may be easy to suspend disbelief watching people getting hacked to pieces, watching a giant spider crawl on someone’s ceiling may feel a little too close to home. 

Bring in Kiah Roache-Turner, who describes himself as arachnophobic after being bitten by a spider as a child. He decides to confront his fears by writing and directing a film about a dog-sized spider. And the result is…middling. 

Sting follows Charlotte (Alyla Brown), a rebellious 12-year-old who spends her time spying on her neighbors through the vents of her apartment building. Her stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr), tries to work with her on a comic book they created together. However, with a new baby in the house and countless hours tending to the tenants’ needs, his attempts at bonding are frequently thwarted.  Charlotte finds solace in a little spider she calls Sting. She quickly becomes fascinated by the little arachnid. But the more she feeds her, the more dangerous and bigger she becomes.

Sting needs more monster moments

Sting takes advantage of its single location. The closeness of the walls and ceiling — especially in the vents — invokes a sense of claustrophobic dread. When Sting does start to cause mayhem, her overwhelming size slowly makes you feel like you’re in the cage of this monster.

But for a creature feature, we barely see any creatures. There’s only one major kill in the whole movie, and the rest of the victims we see dead spun in a web. Knowing what Sting is, there was so much potential for more creative kills than just leaning into “stereotypical spider stuff.”

At a breakneck 90 minutes, the film spends most of the time focusing on Charlotte and her stepdad. Their plotlines are painfully generic and takes away from much needed spider action. There were more campy moments than others — such as when Charlotte figures out Sting’s ridiculous weakness. However, the film never fully commits to the bit. If Roache-Turner had just stuck with that idea, he would have made something special. 

While not downright terrible, Sting suffers from being another generic horror film. It’s easily forgettable and doesn’t do much with its creature. However, there is one silver lining: The film’s ending leaves it open to a sequel. While one dog-sized spider might not have been enough to make this film scary, hundreds of them might. 

Sting is out now in theaters.

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Images Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment