Natalie D.C.
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and with the holiday comes a slew of dark romances—from Emerald Fennell’s highly-anticipated “Wuthering Heights” to the Amazon Prime erotic thriller series 56 Days to the genre-bending Shudder original film Honey Bunch. The latter project follows Diana (Grace Glowicki), a woman who is taken to a remote trauma facility by her husband Homer (Ben Petrie) without remembering the cause of her injuries.
Written and directed by Canadian filmmakers Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Honey Bunch is a surreal exploration of marriage, disability, and the lengths someone will go to for the person they love. This sci-fi/fantasy horror/thriller blend premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival and is slated for digital release by Shudder on February 13th.
From its beginning, Honey Bunch establishes itself as wholly original. The opening scene depicts the protagonists, not yet named, dramatically professing their love for one another on a cloudy beach. Homer carries Diana into tumultuous waters to the tune of a lovesick song as viewers wonder how these two got into this strange situation. Cut to a secluded property in the Canadian woods helmed by an overly-warm Scot named Farah (Kate Dickie) who reassures Diana; the amnesia-ridden woman will be staying at the trauma facility alongside her husband until she “gets better.”
Viewers aren’t yet privy to what Diana is meant to be recovering from—she has a limp and scattered memories of how she has gotten to this place that seems dead-set on experimenting on her using an odd combination of unappetizing dinners, flashing lights, and mysterious medication. As Diana is peppered with strange visions, she starts to remember her dissatisfying life with Homer before her elusive accident, setting off an unexpected chain of events that disrupts her husband’s concealed plans.
Honey Bunch excels at confounding its audience. On the surface, the film is a beautifully-shot and lovingly-composed tale of grief and devotion that expertly blends its carefully-chosen genres, settings, and themes. However, further scrutiny reveals cracks beneath its hypnotic exterior.
First off, the film produces more questions than answers. What timeframe is this story set in? Diana’s dresses and Homer’s sweater vests would suggest the 1970s, but their characters feel much more modern. Who is Dr. Tréphine (Patricia Tulasne)? For being the brain behind the trauma facility’s larger-than-life experiments, she is notably absent for much of the film. These are just some nagging details that, upon closer inspection, start to chip away at the film’s already-unsteady foundation.
Secondly, while co-stars Glowicki and Petrie are partners in real life, their on-screen chemistry is not the strongest, a weakness hard to ignore in a film that centers on their characters’ devotion to one another. Diana and Homer are barely characters outside of their marriage—context hidden for much of the film—so their forced banter is not enough to sustain viewers’ interest in their fates. Because of this, Diana feels like an empty husk of an independent woman trying to take back her place in an unsatisfying marriage and Homer goes from borderline annoying to downright despicable as his heinous actions—excused by grief or not—are gradually revealed.
A stronger bond can be found between background characters Joseph (Jason Isaacs) and Josephina (India Brown), a father-daughter duo who act as a foil to Diana and Homer not only because of their honesty with one another—Joseph is forthcoming to Josephina about the macabre nature of her treatment, much to the shock of tunnel-visioned Homer—but also because of their clear love for one another. Isaacs, most known for his portrayal of Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter franchise, gives this performance his all as Joseph sacrifices everything for his spirited, yet doomed daughter, impressively played by young talent Brown.
These supporting characters’ strengths shine a light on Diana and Homer’s flaws, proving filmmakers Mancinelli and Sims-Fewer have the ability to craft engaging characters, yet seem unwilling to give their strongest writing to their most featured cast members. Because of this, Honey Bunch feels hollow, choosing shocking body horror or underutilized plotlines over heartwrenching romance or profound discussions of a woman’s role in a heterosexual marriage.
An empty attempt at combining the eeriness of Yellowjackets with the commentary of “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Honey Bunch falls flat in spite of its strong performances, whimsical set design, and alluring premise. With this said, the film could still make for a fitting double feature with “Wuthering Heights” this Valentine’s Day.
