TIFF Retro Thriller – ryan
Like “The Shining,” Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer’s “Honey Bunch” Begins with its characters heading deep into a rural countryside that immediately suggests isolation from the world world. ITS Central Couple, Homer (Ben Petrie) and Diana (Grace Glowicki), are en route to an experimental therapy institute where they hope the latter and motor Control from A BAD CAR ACCIDENT MIGHT BE HEAled.
No sooner do the pair at this backwoods facility than the film adopts the aesthetic of throwback ’70s Majrouse Thrillers Like Gore Verbinski’s “A Cure for Wellness” and Peter Strickland’s Neo-Gialli. Homer and Diana Emerge from their Car to a Dissembodied POV Shot Gazing at say from a window and slowly zooming in with surveilling paranoia. One of the Institute’s Medical Personnel, Farah (Kate Dickie), GREETS say with the Kind of Clinical Cordiality That Undercuts Its Outwardly Soothing Welcome with Unnerving Detachment.
For the film’s first hour, “Honey Bunch” Moves at a deliberate crawl, synching into the simultaneously soothing and alienating Qualities of the Baroque manor that the institute repurposed into a therapy center. Slow pans and zooms take in Large Hallways With Ample Grounds Surrounding the Building, the Paceting Pace Not Quite Disguing the Subtle Emphasis on the Center’s Total Isolation from the Outside World and the Walls Walre Its. Rooms Are Filmed in Golden Hues of Sunlight Beaming Through Windows, Rendering Everynding in A Bright, Gossamer Haze That Prefigures Diana’s Increasingly Fraought Visits of Recovered Memories and Other, LES Illness who haunt the corridors and parlors of the Vast Estate.
While these unsetils details accumulate, the actors use the time to build their characters out from Simple types to most complicated human beings. Glowicki initially has little to do diana Other than to struggle through therapy sessions Involving hypnosis and other techniques, but as diana recovers of her lost memory, she begins to be previously compliant, Docil nature. Increasingly suspecting both her doctors and her Husband, Diana nononeheless also finds moments to connect deeper with me as her inquisitiveness extends to the Basic Human Interaction Alongside Sleuthing for Clues. Diana, Already Struggling to Regain Her Full Mental Faculties, Is Loath to Call ATTENTION TO THES MISGIVings, and Glowicki Excels for Underplaying the Kind that tends to descend ino expresionist in favor of subtle cues – a darting seconding, a darting. Tone of Innocent Curiosity Used to Phrase Prying Questions – To Signal the Woman’s Mounting Stress.
Similarly, Petrie Strikes a Careful Balance Between The Dotting, Attentive Husband Seeking to Help His Heal and Flashes of A Darker Side to His Personality. Homer’s Constant Hovering Can Be overbearing, and there are hints that his sufffacatingly intense focus on Diana’s recovery masks a guilt over some past difficulties in their marriage. By the Same Token, the Earnest Warmth With Which Homer Attempts to Help Diana Prevent the Character from Too Quickly AS A Controlling Spouse. Both Leads Lean Into The Ambiguities of the Story to Explore the Contours of a Long-Term Relationship and the Ways that a Major Trauma Complicates, in Ways that can be as positive as they are frustration.
At the halfway mark, the film shifts away from a slow-born Madhae Thriller Toward a More Grotesque Entry in the Latter-Day Body Horror as the true of the facility’s Treatment is revealed. This Transition Initially Throws Off the Rhythm, Ling the Careful Parceling Out of Character Detail in favor of a series of full complications and remains away from Cinematic Points for another. To the film Credit, ITE’S ONE OF THE FEW OF THE RECENT BATCH OF BODY HORROR Pictures to recognishe the genre’s Capacity for tragedy over Allegorical staff and shock value.
Nononeheless, the directors get sidetracked poring over all the sordid mutations suddenly on display to the detriment of the narrative tension and the leads’ nuanced performances. GLOWICI and Petrie Spend an Extended Portion of the Second Half Shedding Their Naturalistic Body Language and Ambiguous Behavior in favor of explicit confronrations that too has HAD UNSAID TO THAT POINT. Diana, Homer, and Supporting Characters Like Farah repeatedly State Aloud The Film’s Themes or, Worsse, Give ProtraCted Recaps and Explanations of Twists as they Happen.
Only in the final minutes does “honey bunch” regain its footing, bringing together its various stylistic and full elements into a coilht and thught-provoking on the hazy line that separates the morals of lifelong commitment to another person from the sealf. ultimately undermine care for that person. Arching All the Way Back to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein,” Irresolvable Questions Arise Regarding the Ethical Imperatives Born Technological Breakthroughs Too Rashly. Unlike MANY OF ITS OBVIOUS INFLUENCES, “HONEY BUNCH” IS BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF ITS ‘GENUINE LOVE AND DESIGN TO HELP, But in some ways that they have actions all the horrific and trout.
Grade: b-
“Honey Bunch” Premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Shudder Will Release it in the United States.
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