Sting

Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, Sting follows the residents of a rundown apartment complex, including Ryan Corr’s Ethan and Alyla Browne’s Charlotte, as they’re terrorized by a rapidly-expanding alien spider. It’s a fun premise that’s employed to often overwhelmingly uninvolving and disappointing effect by Roache-Turner, as the filmmaker, working from his own script, delivers a low-rent endeavor that’s been suffused with a whole host of unappealing, underwhelming attributes – with, especially, the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by Brad Shield’s frustratingly dim cinematography and protagonists of a uniformly one-dimensional, generic nature (ie there’s nobody here for whom to wholeheartedly root). There’s little doubt, as well, that Sting‘s continuing emphasis on the hopelessly tiresome and dull domestic exploits of its flat characters perpetuates the mostly interminable vibe, while the endless, incoherent climax, which is so dark that it’s virtually impossible to discern what’s happening, ensures that the whole thing concludes on just about as lackluster a note as one could envision – with the end result a complete misfire that feels much, much longer than its 91 minutes.

* out of ****