Horror filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner seems to be thumbing his way through a rolodex of creepy villains. He made one hell of a zombie movie with Wyrmwood and, now, he’s given modern creature features a run for their money with Sting.

Sting welcomes the return of the “killer intergalactic space spider” (Apollo 18 anyone?). In what could only be described as tremendous bad luck, an erratic arachnid crashes its way via asteroid into a snowed-in, New York apartment complex.  The featured tenets make up a small community, but everyone is very colourful as well as related.  Precocious 12-year-old Charlotte (Alyla Browne) finds the spider and decides to keep it as a pet;  in secrecy, of course, from the building supervisor, Ethan (Ryan Corr), who is seeing Charlotte’s mother Heather (Penelope Mitchell of Hellboy [2019]).  With each feeding, the spider (“Sting” as named by Charlotte) grows bigger and becomes more crafty, becoming more capable of escaping as it runs amok through the conveniently large ventilation system.

Arachnid aside, Roache-Turner does a very good job juggling the tenet dynamics.  Even though the film’s scope is still quite quaint (as opposed to the similarly set series Only Murders in the Building, which feels immersive in comparison), its tighter focus allows each character to have their fair share of the screen.  Scene-stealing side characters include Jermaine Fowler (Ricky Stanicky) as a perturbed exterminator who hates competition as much as bugs, and the building’s kindhearted but forgetful elder Helga (Noni Hazlehurst, even if she is recycling her leading character from June Again).

Sting clicks between two types of horror, an efficient monster movie and an elevated action hybrid ala Alien.  The titular arachnid is so well-rendered in its animation and with its personality.  Roache-Turner also plays around with the spider’s intelligence as well;  being very careful of how much information he tells his audience which only ends in freaky surprises.  These imaginative efforts to detail the creature, rather than simply playing on the audience’s suspected fear of spiders, give the filmmakers permission to indulge in cheaper methods to scare the audience, including well-earned jump scares.  And because their hard work is seen throughout Sting, the audience is more open-minded to the directorial decisions.

Sting leads by example: by filmmakers treating movie goers with respect and consideration, they’ll receive the same in return.

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Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie