I vastly prefer indie horror flicks to big budget ones, for many reasons. I’m difficult to scare, and what does creep me out is often nowhere to be found in shrieking violins or twist endings. Truly scary movies are quiet, low-key endeavors, and Leigh Janiak’s HONEYMOON is just that.
The problem is that I came into this movie with a handicap. Personal, slow-building horror films derive their effectiveness from putting yourself into the place of whoever is poking around in the dark. A movie about a honeymoon, then, sort of requires a kind of attitude towards committed relationships that I have trouble reconciling. I loathe weddings; I have an aversion to cheesy matrimony. The opening sequence of lovey-dovey introduction videos made me slightly nauseous. I’m pretty sure this was not the point. The point is to elicit sympathy for the young couple, because having feelings for them leads to giving a crap about their place of impending danger later on.
But all was not lost! I persevered, because I love indie horror and I am a recent fan of Harry Treadaway (who makes a rather fabulous Dr. Frankenstein on PENNY DREADFUL). And lo, I did find a point of entry into these young people’s lives, in the form their surroundings: a remote family cabin. On a lake, no less. I was raised under very similar circumstances every summer, and minute details about fake ducks and VHS players had me grinning in several places (particularly when the couple started tying fishing bait wrong… ah, well). So that worked. Marginally. For relationship skeptics, I would almost recommend skipping the first third of the film, except that you can’t, because this is a film about suspicion and change, and you can’t detect change without first experiencing the initial state.
After the relationship and environment are established, what makes HONEYMOON work on a visceral level are the performances. As Bea, Rose Leslie displays an uncanny ability to completely alter her personality after a strange encounter in the woods (which new-Bea attributes to “sleepwalking”), and it’s easy to believe that she’s been fundamentally changed somehow. Harry Treadway, while a bit too trusting of his new “wife” for a bit too long, ultimately reacts with the kind of horror and urgency one would expect from a young newlywed—although nearer to the end, all I wanted to say was “Get the hell out of there, doofus.”
For fans of being scared, HONEYMOON is a great film to watch in the dark. The score is subtle and terrifying and completely free of jump-fright crescendos, allowing us to feel the dread ourselves—particularly when strange lights come through the cabin windows and low bass notes accompany them. The horror of isolation is a common one, but no less effective here, with shadows watching in the woods and bug-eyed, creepy neighbors. HONEYMOON also features one of the most intense and disturbing scenes of “extraction” I’ve seen in many years. I mean, it’s next-level gross. Even as a horror fan, I was impressed.
Bottom line: Even if the initial domestic squabbling bores you, stick around, because the scares absolutely deliver, and the last fifteen minutes are psychological horror at its finest.
Writers: Leigh Janiak and Phil Graziadei
Director: Leigh Janiak
Starring: Rose Leslie, Harry Treadaway
Release Date: September 12, 2014 (limited)
September 11, 2014 By Holly Interlandi