BY ALISE CHAFFINS
Kiah Roache-Turner’s latest horror film, “Sting” released in theaters on Friday. Both he and the film’s star, Alyla Browne, hope you’ll see this one as soon as possible — even if you’re an arachnophobe.
Plus, he’s got his sights set on the sequel.
“I mean, at the end of the day, I want lots of people to go and see it and enjoy it because, you know, the more people that go and see it, the more successful it is and the more successful it is, the more likely it is that I get to make ‘Sting Two’ and I really wanna make ‘Sting Two,’” Roache-Turner said,
“Sting” is about a young girl, Charlotte, played by Alyla Browne, who discovers an alien spider and decides to raise it as a pet. But as the spider grows, it becomes more and more evident that this is not a safe pet for anyone in her building, and especially her family.
As much as the movie is about this killer spider, it is also about the relationship between Charlotte and her step-father, Ethan. Often when films follow step-parent relationships, there is an element of
ugliness to them, but this shows the two of them trying to connect. Roache-Turner said this comes from his own experience as a stepfather.
“It was very personal to me, and the family in the film is my family. I am very much like Ethan, I’m an artist, and I struggle because I’m an artist,” he said. “So weirdly, even though this is a film about a giant alien spider that eats people, it’s unusually the most personal thing that I’ve ever written. So if people relate to the characters and the narrative, that’s probably why.”
Another unique aspect of this film was the decision to use a practical spider rather than digital effects. Richard Taylor of the WETA Workshop created the spider and Browne said having a real, giant spider to act opposite helped with her performance.
As much as they hope audiences will see the film for a fun time, they also hope that there is a deeper message in “Sting.”
“I feel like people should take away what they want to from it and relate it to their own experiences, but it’s really about the relationship between a family and how that can so easily just get completely destroyed and decimated,” Roache-Turner said. “So keep it close and show that even through hard times, that can actually strengthen families to a great extent.”
