Sting * * * ½

"Sting" gets adventurous as he goes through his growing stage

Sting is a nicely made Australian horror film, though you would never know it is Australian.  It is set in America and the Australian cast talk with American (or European) accents.

The American setting works well. There would be no advantage in having it uniquely Australian and it would probably suffer at the box office (Americans do like their movies to be local ), where it has actually done quite well.  Deservedly so.  (Rather like Late Night with the Devil). 

It's got a charming B Grade feel about it, but its still polished.  It's set in one apartment block in the middle of a North American winter.  It looks damn cold outside. There are several units in the block. The nasty owner lives in one with her demented mother.  A related young family live in another with Mum and (Step)Dad, a little baby, and twelve year old Charlotte who likes bugs. 

Charlotte likes to amuse herself by crawling through the air-conditioning shafts and emerging into other people's apartments by popping out the air vent. Meanwhile, outside the snow storm rages. 

One night a wee meteor (no bigger than a pebble) crashes through the window and into the spare room at Grandma's apartment. Inside this meteor is a little spider that crawls out.  Charlotte captures it and takes it back to her apartment, names it "Sting", pops it into a jar and commences to feed it.

After a while, she doesn't have to because the spider is big enough and smart enough to unscrew the lid and go off and feed itself. It too likes to utilise the air con shafts that Charlotte employs.

Meanwhile we learn about Charlottes relationship with Ethan her step Dad. Good and healthy, they even share the writing of a comic book together,  but there is always that "You're not my real Dad" thing going.   That's something that's got to be overcome.

Sting the spider grows bigger and bigger and hungrier and pretty soon humans are on the menu. Now he's hiding in the walls and the air shafts and he can imitate sounds to lure you in. 

It's about this time that the film becomes very much like Alien with the apartment block as the space ship and young Charlotte as Ripley. 

It's a fun film. Very well made. Probably not the most original of horror films but not many are.  Sting makes up for that by at least giving us a well told, well acted, well shot, highly entertaining story, with more than a few scares and laughs.