On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark honors fringe cinema in the streaming age with midnight movies from any moment in film history.
First, the BAIT: a weird genre pick and why we’re exploring its specific niche right now. Then, the BITE: a spoiler-filled answer to the all-important question, “Is this old cult film actually worth recommending now?”
The Bait: Even Canadians Were Kids Once
We’re in the muggy middle of summer, but After Dark is coming at you from the Great White North. I’ve been in Montreal since Tuesday, and while my reporting on international affairs is generally pretty limited, I’m happy to confirm things truly are better in Canada. Getting off the airplane and stepping onto the tarmac, my restored human rights hit like a G-force, and after an excellent breakfast this morning, I’m confident New York would lose to Quebec in a battle of the bagels.
Judging the Cheval Noir competition (and catching some extra titles not in my category) at Fantasia Fest, I’ve seen a lot of great new movies this week — and even made time to double-back for tonight’s pick, “Honeycomb.” The shoestring horror film had its world premiere at Slamdance and played here in 2022.
Avalon Fast is known in the Canadian genre scene, but I just learned about her watching “The Serpent’s Skin.” The 22-year-old talent plays a dreamy lesbian love interest opposite Alexandra McVicker in Alice Maio Mackay’s fresh demon romance. The magnetism that made her performance work in that seems to pulse beneath the premise of her earlier feature debut as a director. When a group of girls decide to abandon their lives for the woods of British Columbia, they establish a strange society with violent rituals.
“I wouldn’t bring anything I wasn’t ready to share… or get blood on,” says one of the teens during an early scene that suggests no one should be packing.
The girls won’t know how much they’ve lost it until the outside world comes calling, and the boys they like from school visit the bizarre abode. Sure, that sounds a little like “Lord of the Flies,” but why make the comparison when “Yellowjackets” is right there? Complete with bees, the cannibalism dramedy from Showtime was shooting in Canada around the same time as “Honeycomb.” Fast co-wrote the script with Emmett Roiko and became a feature filmmaker at just 19. (It’s worth noting that Maio Mackay from “The Serpent’s Skin” is only 20 now, but who’s counting?)
Leaving letters to their families, and floating through feverish visuals, the girls exit their average existence to build a hive that feels more like bones of “The Virgin Suicides.” At least, that’s what other people tell me. Watching just the first five minutes of “Honeycomb,” the amateur cast and chunky script seem unlikely to induce delirium. But turning the lights off and watching another five minutes, I could already feel Fast reaching into the frame and making exciting choices unusual for any director.
Before Trump 2.0 started picking fights with our neighbors, the U.S. almost always treated Canada like the good guys. Now, we’re essentially restructuring our own byzantine government, and I’m dreading leaving Montreal. Maybe “Honeycomb” will scare me away. I mean, there is something upsetting about it — something that makes this shaky 71-minute experiment (with claymation?) feel like it wasn’t meant for humans at all.
“Honeycomb” is available to buy only on Gumroad
The Bite: Screw the Yellowjackets! Let’s Talk “Parent Trap”
Call me crazy, but I think we can safely assume the co-writers of “Honeycomb” saw “My Girl” way too young. They also managed to put a surprisingly sick twist on mattress pranks à la “The Parent Trap” with an accidental murder by bee sting I can assure you I will try and fail to forget next time I require an inflatable sleeping device. Ah, broken glasses! Dead kids! Wat fun!
Sleep-away slashers are a dime a dozen, but Fast’s freshman feature earnestly evokes the feeling of a hot sleepy summer from your youth — when the days are long and you can actually feel yourself growing up. Textured in exquisite flaws (if you can call them that), “Honeycomb” lives up to its reputation as a kind of “Let’s Scare Jessica to Death” for Canadian teens. Awkward line deliveries pair with incisive editing and intuitive direction to create a discordant sensation that put me on edge most of the time.
The lo-fi special effects work well for Fast, too. Whether it’s that butcher knife/blood spray, or the piped-in buzzing from the bees, “Honeycomb” boasts a cursed object quality throughout. Even as you see the performers actively engaged in the production, their vulnerability and desire to “work at it” makes the whole ordeal feel more dangerous. That shagginess is mostly well-managed and you can watch Fast mature in real-time as a director here.
As the scenes go on, and “Honeycomb” settles into itself, the filmmaker rips through clever emotional insights with remarkable confidence and speed. The “Strawberry Fields” tattoo moment alone makes Fast’s next project, fittingly called “Camp,” a threat to watch when it premieres this September.
I’ll be heading back to Los Angeles soon, and I guess that’s for the best. The “Honeycomb” girls didn’t quite scare me out of Canada, but I’m not ready to abandon American society just yet. Instead, I’ll be returning to California with the attitude of not one but two 12-year-old Lindsay Lohans. Translation? I’m buying an air mattress and becoming ungovernable. (French translation? J’achète un matelas pneumatique et je deviens ingouvernable — I think? Je ne sais pas.)
IndieWire After Dark publishes midnight movie recommendations late-night on weekends. Read more of our deranged recommendations and filmmaker interviews…