Honeyspider

Honeyspider (2014)

Runtime: 76 minutes

Directed by: Josh Hasty

Starring: Mariah Brown, Frank J. Aard, Joan Schuermeyer, Rachel Jeffreys,  Ethan Dunn

From: Paramount Scope

My apologies for not posting this sooner; I was preoccupied with other things and I did not even have time to watch anything on Sunday. But now things should be back to normal for me. As for this obscure movie, I say this North Carolina horror may be worth seeing. I talk all about it below in a Letterboxd review that was more apt a few days ago:

Yes, I have returned. I am thankful I live where I do, as unlike some parts of Florida, Hurricane Matthew only resulted in some strong gusts of wind, quite a bit of rain on Thursday night, and an average overcast day on Friday; that was it. The power did not even go out, which was my biggest fear.

I'll be honest and say that it was a mutual watching this movie last night and presenting a glowing review which piqued my interest. Looking it up, I see it was an ultra low-budget film made in North Carolina, which I'll mention in case anyone reading this is from the Tarheel State. Even after hearing it compared to a movie I haven't seen (The Lords of Salem) and something I unfortunately did see (unlike most, I thought The House of the Devil was bad; the cast and concept were all fine; it was the glacially slow story and the story itself which I did not enjoy at all) I still gave this a try. After all, it's only 76 minutes long.

Oh, and the lead character is a college-aged student named... JACKIE BLUE. Yes, like the song, which you don't hear in the film. Why she has that name, I cannot explain. This is set in the 80's but the character would have been born before the song was made. Seeing that Brain Damage Films released it on disc and the streaming service did not inspire confidence, as most of the films they put out is bottom of the barrel offal. This is worthy of a more highly regarded distribution arm. Nevertheless, when the movie begins with a S-L-O-W pan, I was hoping I did not make a mistake. Thankfully, it's the only time the movie operates in such a manner. Even if I hadn't read any comparisons, I would have thought “The House of the Devil” after the opening credits, where the lead walks on a college campus and you hear an electronic song. In this case, it was a fine synthwave tune.

Jackie Blue actually is a girl who lives a life from inside of her room. She is now 21 but is busy with school. Still, she accepts an invite to a Halloween party-so that she can live her life more in a free-form style-after she's done working at a cinema, which is showing “Sleepover Slaughter III”. But, mysterious things start happening... will she see the sunset but not see it rise? It has to be said that The House of the Dead is not the only obvious inspiration. Yep, the Halloween franchise is another one. I say that as you come across references that are obvious... or obvious to those familiar to the franchise. You know, you sometimes see names and you laugh about it because you get where they came from. Even Halloween III: Season of the Witch is part of its DNA. I won't spoil what other horror flicks from the past are brought up.

The movie isn't really about gore at all; rather, it's more about things like tension and atmosphere, and it is fine at that. Jackie Blue is a likable enough protagonist and I was never bored as we followed her night and the escalation of weird events. Unfortunately, the low budget is apparent as it does not always resemble its 1989 setting. Plus, the endgame, the final act, the point of all this... I say that the movie does not quite nail this, even if it's clear what they were going for and it is a creepy idea. I have no problem with not everything being spelled out; I am just not sure if it was done as well as it could have been. Plus, you find out why this film has such a unique title. Apparently, the filmmakers got it from an early Smashing Pumpkins song but as I am not a big Smashing Pumpkins fan... this was not previously known by me.

While this is not entirely successful, it's still a watchable picture, one which at least shows more ambition and creativity than the typical horror dreck that is crapped out on a weekly basis in the past few years (if not more). Plus, I actually did give it bonus points for the end credits, which feature nicely done animated figures that properly symbolize this Halloween season.