BUFF 2022: ‘Honeycomb’ Review
Stars: Sophie Bawks-Smith, Jillian Frank, Mari Geraghty, Henri Gillespi, Max Graham, Reily Houlihan, Emmett Roiko, Destini Stewart, Jaris Wales, Rowan Wales | Written by Avalon Fast, Emmett Roiko | Directed by Avalon Fast
After watching, and very much enjoying, my first handful of short films from the Boston Underground Film Festival I moved on to the main features.
Honeycomb tells the story of a group of friends who decide to leave their current lives and go and live in a cabin in the woods that one of them has found. The five young women believe this new life will be the start of something much more exciting than their current mundane situation. But the reality of this new life isn’t as idyllic as they might have hoped.
There are times when Honeycomb feels very much like the low budget amateurish production that it most certainly is. There’s some not so great editing and camera work. It doesn’t really affect the movie in a bad way but it just takes you out of the moment for a second. There are also moments of acting that feels very wooden and like the actors are concentrating a little too much on saying their lines. This will happen with actors that have little or no experience and thankfully there as also plenty of moments where the cast put in a good performance. I actually think the more intense scenes and monologues were definitely a positive. This is a little bit surprising because you’d think these would be the scenes that would be harder for inexperienced actors but they seemed to ‘step up’ when needed.
Although there will be plenty of people that wouldn’t call Honeycomb a horror movie. There are plenty of reasons to think otherwise. The score might be the most obvious because right from the first few seconds of the movie it has a sinister sound to it. What is happening on-screen might look happy and bright but the score was always telling me that something bad was likely to happen at some point.
You soon see where the movie is heading and the movie itself even mentions Lord of the Flies in a self-knowing kind of way. The more recent media it could be compared to is the show Yellowjackets. There’s plenty of comparisons to be made between the two and this isn’t a bad thing. Yellowjackets was a good show. Like that show, Honeycomb is a coming of age tale that becomes dark and twisted.
The group of girls get lost in their own fantasy. Their own world where they start to believe that they are the only ones in it. So when they start making up their own strange ‘rules’ and ignore the consequences from them, you know this is leading down a dark path. Some of the more disturbing moments could have worked better with a bigger budget but you get the ideas and themes well enough.
Honeycomb doesn’t quite hit the high notes that its ideas suggest it might and it does lack originality in many parts. But there is something here from the first time director and young cast. Something that keeps you watching and knowing there’s plenty more to come.
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Honeycomb screened as part of this year’s Boston Underground Film Festival.
