Honeymoon

For their honeymoon, a newly-wed couple Paul and Bea travel to the bride's former home, a rural, sparsely populated community in Canada. A strange encounter with an old acquaintance follows a sleepwalking incident involving Bea and from hereon in it becomes clear that something is terribly wrong.

This indie flick has a very small cast that relies largely on the acting of its two central characters, a couple of Brits called Rose Leslie and Harry Treadway whose American accents are pretty flawless it has to be said. Both put in very strong performances in roles that require a fair bit of range. The characters evolve from so-happy-we'll-make-you-sick just married, through to relationship distrust and eventually onto outright psychological horror. The actors are good enough to convince in all these very differing levels of emotion. Because the story has so few characters, such a remote setting and such intense emotions, it's a film that is somewhat claustrophobic in its effect. It underplays the horror side of things and slowly builds thing up layer by layer. But we are never in any doubt that there is something very strange going on and there are small unusual clues punctuated along the way, such as strange sexual-looking marks on Bea's body, a recurring gooey substance found alongside her discarded night-dress and her strange distant behaviour. To reveal any more would be unfair, so I will leave it at that but suffice to say that this is a very good, mysterious genre piece well directed by Leigh Janiak.

Honeymoon reminds me a lot of The One I Love which came out the same year. They're both about a couple who go on an isolated retreat and end up getting more than they bargained for. It's a good premise and one that promises potential, but it's entirely reliant on the execution of the mystery. Something is wrong with Bea, the wife of the recently married couple. The first night of their honeymoon, she wanders out in the middle of the night and Paul, the husband, goes out to find her naked in the woods with no memory of what happened prior. From then on she acts distant - hiding things from him, lying about trivial things - something just isn't right. And the way the movie is set up is very well done. For a good hour of the movie I was totally into it. I had no idea what the threat was and was eager to find out. Then you do find out what it is and it's quite horrifying, but you can tell the filmmakers didn't exactly know how to end the movie.

What carries Honeymoon is the acting. The two leads are excellent and have great chemistry throughout, so when the weird things start happening, you believe the husband's growing concern and the wife's pleads of innocence. And the pacing is spot on. Atmosphere is front and center from the start. The setting is a cabin in the woods, and as cliché as it may be for a horror story, it can be thoroughly effective with the right ambiance and Honeymoon delivers in that regard. The mystery itself is unraveled at a good pace as well, leaving breadcrumbs for the audience and throwing a few twists and turns along the way.

Now I'm giving the movie a lot of praise, and that's because I consider 6/10 an above-average score which is precisely what Honeymoon is - an above-average horror mystery. It's nothing revolutionary. The One I Love did a better job with this premise, but that doesn't mean Honeymoon isn't worth checking out. If you're in the mood for an engaging edge-of-your-seat thriller, you're looking in the right place.

Another doesn't make sense movie. We are not told the why or the how. We just see what happened somehow. The first half of the movie is fine. The second half get progressively worse until the final scene which makes no sense. It's still a good watch though if you like Rose Leslie.

I just watched this movie on Hulu. I had never heard of it and didn't realize it has been out awhile. The trailer looked promising! But unfortunately this one turned out to be a dud unless you like open ended movies with no closure/answers. If a movie isn't a good story answering The Who what when where why and how.... I'll pass. It would've been nice to at least be thought provoking and open for some interpretation but I saw nothing. It had potential to be a great movie but it seems like the writers fell asleep every ten minutes

Totally surprising. Finally, there's been some good horror films this year but none all that great, and I finally found it (that is, if I don't count Under The Skin as horror). The pacing in this is really excellent, and it follows the old-school rule of what it doesn't show us is scarier. It's not incredibly original by any means, but it also doesn't fall into old weary horror clichés and it's all pretty grounded. This is in part due to the script and the really elegant and observant direction, but also because of the two fantastic lead performances. Rose Leslie certainly made her mark in Game of Thrones, and she's one to watch out for in the future. She's incredibly effective here, as is Harry Treadaway. Their chemistry is strong and it's about time we get some great acting in a horror film. This is truly well-acted and engrossing horror, not to mention actually scary. Might just be one of my favorite films the year so far