We open with a mysterious object crash landing through the window of an old, dilapidated apartment building New York City. While I’m sure this rundown place is no stranger to creepy crawly pests, what climbs out of the egg that crashes is a spider unlike anything Earth has seen. Weird kid Charlotte is the one to discover it, naming it Sting and keeping it in a jar. She needs the company with a new baby brother hogging all the attention and a stepfather who tries to relate to her but ultimately just isn’t her real dad. But unfortunately for the denizens of these apartments, Sting is quite hungry and is growing at an alarming rate…

Sting feels like a throwback in the best possible way. Here we have a film released in 2024 using nearly all practical effects (executed flawlessly by the wizkids at Weta Workshop!) with a nasty dollop of humor and a real sense of horror, making it reminiscent of those classic ’80s monster movies we all know and love like Gremlins, Critters, and Basket Case. The film is even shot with a heightened sense of reality, using odd angles and garish colored lighting to create an almost comic book-like look that reminds me of Creepshow or Tales from the Crypt in the best possible way. All the actors involved also feel like those campy lived-in characters you find in these type of films: the wise-cracking exterminator, the tightwad landlord, the oblivious old woman, the creepy kid… They are stereotypes but played effectively within the framework of the film. One of the more interesting characters is Ryan Corr’s Ethan, the stepfather who wants to connect with his stepdaughter but is also dealing with his own rage and inadequacy issues. Between his distant daughter and a stepmother who owns the building and actively despises him but hires him as the handyman for the building out of obligation, you can feel his stress building to a breaking point. To speak on the effects one more time, I just want to talk a little bit more about how great they are. The giant spider is basically a big puppet, but the puppeteers are able to give it such an otherworldly movement that it comes across incredibly effective and creepy. I absolutely love that the guys at Weta took time between massive spectacles like the Marvel movies and Dune to make a big, gross spider for this small indie movie. It shows a true fondness for the genre and a love of the craft.

The video quality of Well Go USA’s transfer is reliably great with a very clean and clear picture and no noticeable instances of distortion or compression effects. The rich lighting effects really pop as well against the deep blacks. The disc includes both a DTS-HD 5.1 and a Stereo 2.0 audio track, and the 5.1 track in particular sounds quite robust, accentuating the creepy ambience of the film with skitters and spooky noises across the channels. For extras, we get three featurettes, one on Weta’s work in creating the spider, one with the director and how he conceived of the project and one with the cast. I especially liked the effects featurette just because, let’s be honest, that big ass spider is the star of the show and it’s cool to see how it came together.

Sting is quite frankly fun-as-hell, and if you love the creature features of the ’80s, you owe it to yourself to check this one out ASAP.