Jeri Jacquin

Coming to Bluray and currently on Digital from writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner and Well Go USA is the story of a girl and her unusual friend with STING.

Charlotte (Alyla Browne) is a young girl living in an old apartment building with Mom Heather (Penelope Mitchell), baby brother Liam and step-dad Ethan (Ryan Corr). Occupying herself much of the time, she visits the apartment of her grand aunt and grandmother Helga (Noni Hazelhurst) from time to time. On this day while in their apartment, Charlotte finds a fascinating and unusual spider and decides to keep it in her room.

Naming her friend Sting, she feeds him but the tiny spider grows bigger and its appetite grows as well. In the home, Charlotte is struggling with her parents as Ethan tries to be closer to the girl. Feeling the strain, Ethan and Heather strike an argument about the girl’s father but that doesn’t stop Sting from doing a little striking out on its own.

Sting is larger than life and has picked up a few tricks to lure the buildings tenants into a web battle that can either end a family or bring them closer together.

Browne as Charlotte is quite the young girl who has no problem letting people know how she feels. Straight forward, she is also trying to understand the problems going on in the adult world. Finding friendship with a spider not only gives her comfort, but something else to focus on. Browne gives an eerie performance to match that of her eight-legged friend and it works beautifully.

Corr as Ethan is a man trying to do his best to keep blend the instant family and new family together. Under the pressure of taking care of a building that would probably make a better pile of rubble and working from home, his relationship with Charlotte is becoming strained. Yet, when push comes to spider, Corr is going to fight for his family with the clever help of the one person he truly wants happy. Mitchell as wife Heather is also trying to take care of Grandma, work and raise a family which makes double strain at home.

Shout out to Hazelhurst as grandma Helga who knows something is going on but is living between two worlds. I think she’d rather be in the one that doesn’t have a spider in it!

Other cast include Robyn Nevin as Gunter, Silvia Colloca as Maria, Danny Kim as Erik, Jermaine Fowler as Frank, Jett/Kade Berry as Liam and narrator Lee Perry.

Well Go USA Entertainment is a theatrical and home entertainment company specializing in bringing the best Action, Genre and Independent films from around the world to North American markets. As a leader in independent film distribution, Well Go USA Entertainment’s titles can be seen across a variety of platforms including theatrical, digital, subscription and cable VOD, packaged media and broadcast television. Well Go USA Entertainment currently releases three to five films per month. To see more please visit www.wellgousa.com.

Bonus Features include Behind the Scenes, Cast and Crew Interviews, Creation of the Monster and Trailer.

Spiders seems to be a running fear with people and this film isn’t going to help. Watching the young girl handle the multi-legged outer space arrival is creepy enough from the beginning. As the film progresses, so does the fear of any sane arachnophobic as the scenes are set in grey, a bit dingy and places to hide.

STING is absolutely a film that should be watched in the dark from start to finish (I’d add a soundbar for full crazy). The creepy little spider has a mind of its own and is going to do what it must to survive. That means humans, or anything else breathing, is going to be its target. There hasn’t been a creepy spider film since the 1990 Frank Marshall directed film ARACHNOPHOBIA (a family fav by the way).

This film brings in a much darker element but seems to want to place ‘nefarious’ at the eight legs of spiders. I admit I’m not a huge fan of spiders and give them a wide birth when I see them, but they get a bad wrap because of their looks. Director Roache-Turner takes that fright and slowly gives it size, strength and out of this world smarts to give arachnophobia something else to worry about – well done.

In the end – your biggest fear just got bigger!

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