Sting

Arachnophobes beware! You might want to give the scary new spider horror Sting a miss.

The horror, set in a Brooklyn apartment block, follows Charlotte (Alyla Browne), a young girl who is finding her footing in her family, as her mum Heather (Penelope Mitchell) and stepdad Ethan (Ryan Corr) have just welcomed a baby son.

One day, she discovers a spider in one of the apartments and tries to keep it in a jar as her secret pet, naming it Sting and feeding it cockroaches. But Sting isn't an ordinary spider - he grows at an alarming rate and soon wants more to feast on much bigger meals.

The family, their neighbours and a pest control man named Frank (Jermaine Fowler) end up facing off with a giant monster.

Writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner serves up a scary creature feature filled with dread and tension. You just don't know what Sting will do next!

The first kill is the standout because it is the goriest and most horrifying by far. By comparison, the rest of the kills are rather tame and predictable and feel quite similar to each other. The film should have maintained that original level of shocking body horror.

Sting, which is surprisingly funny in places, follows the rulebook for claustrophobic building-based horrors and ticks off a number of cliches - until a certain point when it does something totally unexpected. This is when you realise all bets are off!

In addition to the horror, Roache-Turner creates a well-written foundation with the core characters. There is a genuine and effective family drama at its core and this makes you care about them all when Sting comes knocking.

Browne, who recently played a young Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, delivers a great performance as a dark, angsty teen while Corr plays the heartfelt stepdad who just wants to be accepted as her father.

While it could have done with more graphic kills, Sting is a solid creature feature that'll make your skin crawl.

In cinemas from Friday 31st May