Sting (2024) Film Review • Cheers! with Chelsea

Naturally, Sting (2024) was not going to pass on my radar and I had the fortunate opportunity to watch and review this film early. Spider films for both education and entertainment purposes are always on my watch list. As such, it made sense that Sting was on it.

sting (2024) film poster — *_{^{Film poster courtesy of Well Go West Entertainment}}*

Thanks to a new series from AMC theaters called Scream Unseen, I got to watch Sting back in March. Surprise, surprise. I now rank it up there with my favorite spider flick, Arachnophobia!

What is AMC’s Scream Unseen?

Before I jump into my review, I’d like to talk a bit about how I got to see Sting early. It is not slotted for release in theaters until April 12^th. However, I stumbled across this event series presented by AMC called Scream Unseen. For $5 plus tax, you can catch a yet-to-be released horror film on the silver screen. The only catch? You won’t know what the film will be until it starts to roll after the previews. As such, when I invited Señor Scary Jerry to join me, I had no idea it would be this film! It was truly a lucky draw.

A Spoiler Free Sting (2024) Film Review

Sting (2024) Film still — *_{^{Film still courtesy of Well Go West Entertainment}}*

The trailer seemed very promising, but like when I went in to review Itsy Bitsy, you really can’t judge a film by the trailer. Pleasantly, the trailer does represent what the film delivers. Which is good as I’ve watched some rather underwhelming spider horror lately. And no one can convince me otherwise that the planned release date for this film was just a happy coincidence to align with Be Kind to Spiders Week.

Sting (2024) is a great balance of horror and humor. It left me with equal parts of scares and chuckles. Sting the spider is not only intriguing, but also incredibly frightening when she gets to her larger size. She’s a beautiful creature, and my correct prediction over how she would increase her size didn’t take me out of enjoyment of the film.

I did enjoy that the main character’s name is Charlotte, clearly in tribute to the one friendly spider most of us are familiar with. Charlotte is spunky and spooky, but still your average teenage girl with attitude. However, the entire cast of the film perform as amusing quirky characters you can’t help but enjoy. Much like Arachnophobia, you find yourself getting just as endeared to the side characters as the main cast.

Storyline and characters aside, the filmography on this movie is extremely dynamic. The filmmakers captured unique angles that added to the mood and flow of the film.

Trigger warnings to mention going into the film

There are quite a few animal deaths amongst human ones. This includes a parrot, cat and several rodents like rabbits. We don’t witness the deaths of the animals. However, the parrot’s corpse is shown and the cat’s body is out of focus when it is revealed.

Minor Spoiler-ish Complaints Regarding Sting (2024)

This is the section with minor film spoilers. To avoid any spoilers until you see the film, this is your warning. Skip ahead to the next section for my conclusion.

Click here for Spoiler-ish complaints

My only major complaint about this film is the focus on the odd relationship between Charlotte’s mother and (step?)father. There is a clearly established relationship between the mom and dad with a new baby as well as a very unique and special bond between Charlotte. Oddly enough, her father is eluded to still in the picture, sort of. To me, that whole drama situation felt like a really weird twist to throw into the mix.

I’m a minimal drama gal, so I really could have gone without it. Additionally, I feel like the story really didn’t need to rely on it either. Let’s see if I can explain this well. The stepdad is the apartment complex’s repair man. He’s been going through the ringer due to all these strings of deaths caused by Charlotte’s pet spider. However, stepdad gets to a breaking point, which the rest of the family is being rather aloof about. In his frustration, he reveals to Charlotte that her birth father actually abandoned them. Charlotte’s mom has been a pansy about sharing this fact with Charlotte over the whole film. However, the mom gets outraged at stepdad for revealing this.

My main question during this whole scene was, why Mom? I felt like she was the one who was out-of-line. But I digress. It was the only scene that didn’t carry the same vibe of the rest of the film. As thus, it was my only grip over the film. The rest of it, absolutely golden!

Final Review of Sting (2024) Film

Would I recommend Sting (2024)? Absolutely. As mentioned at the beginning, it is going up there with my favorite must-watch spider film, Arachnophobia. I genuinely enjoyed it that much. As I tried to explain to my husband and Señor Scary, this is exactly what I’m looking for when I want to watch a horror film; a fascinating creature feature with some comedic undertones that accompany the jump scares and tension.

If you catch Sting in theaters over the weekend, I would love to hear your thoughts on it!