Sting

You’ll be familiar with the old line about not working with children or animals. Did you know that, if you are going to work with animals in a film, spiders are generally considered to be the worst possible choice? That’s because they don’t behave like other animals. They don’t respond to bribery, or even to intimidation. Spiders do what they want to do, when they want to do it, and that’s all. This may be why improvements in CGI have led to a rush of new spider-themed films, as they’ve suddenly become much easier to make. Sting is not the most original, but it features some good performances and if you’re an arachnophobe, it should provide you will all the terror you could want.

Sting, as this particular spider is called, is very much an individual with her own agenda, as you might guess when seeing her arrive in Charlotte’s building inside a meteor. She’s initially only a baby, however, and is easily captured by the inquisitive 12-year-old (played by Alyla Brown, who is best known for her appearance as the heroine’s younger self in Furiosa). Charlotte makes a pet of her, feeding her cockroaches, and is surprised by how fast she grows – but the pace of that growth will increase considerably when Sting starts sneaking out at night to feed on other residents of the apartment block.

Set in Brooklyn (a not particularly well-disguised corner of Sydney), the film is strongly focused on community. Charlotte’s stepfather, Ethan (Ryan Corr), is the building’s superintendent, so he knows everybody, from lonely alcoholic beauty Maria (Silvia Colloca) to secretive scientist Erik (Danny Kim). Alongside her mum and baby brother, Charlotte also has a grandmother who lives in another apartment with a habitually mean sister, and a collection of animals rounds out the cast. These include chihuahua Bonnie, who proves more resilient than you might expect, and has quite a bit of agency within the confines of the generally predictable plot.

There are a lot of references to Aliens here, somewhat subverted when Charlotte steps up to do the rescuing, and a classic Terminator reference near the end, yet the film still has a personality of its own. It’s emotionally centred on the relationship between Charlotte and Ethan, who longs to be accepted as her dad. An artist by trade, he has helped her to create a comic book, yet she still yearns for the father who has let her down, and her mother hasn’t the heart to tell her just how badly. This creates a strained but ultimately very wholesome dynamic which nicely counterpoints the horror aspects of the film.

Where that’s concerned, director Kiah Roache-Turner treads carefully. There are some gruesome sights here, but they’re spread out and we only get to see them briefly, allowing much of the work to be done by the imagination. This doesn’t stem from necessity – with WETA involved, the effects work is first class – but from a preference for creating tension over revulsion. It pays off. Even when it’s pretty clear what’s going to happen, it can be scary to watch, and rather than growing inured to the gore, you’ll find that there are moments when you instinctively want to look away.

A modest little film but well made, Sting is a lot of fun.