Honeymoon Review

Rated R (Disturbing Bloody Images, Sexual Content and Language)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 27 Minutes

Cast-

Rose Leslie-Bea

Harry Treadaway-Paul

Ben Huber-Will

Hanna Brown-Annie

Bob Harrison-Dark Figure #1

John Lauterbach-Dark Figure #2

Henry Lawrence-Dark Figure #3

Peter Leo-Dark Figure #4

Josh Mulvaney-Dark Figure #5

Keith Wolfrey-Dark Figure #6

Directed by Leigh Janiak

"Honeymoon" marks the directorial debut of Leigh Janiak, a new voice to watch in the horror genre.

Note: Viewed through Video on Demand.

People often complain that 'Hollywood doesn't make good movies anymore' or 'Hollywood has run out of ideas' and I'll admit, I've made those same complaints myself considering some of the crappy films I've had to put up with but the truth of the matter is that the overall quality of Hollywood's output hasn't changed all that much compared to the so-called 'glory days.' They continue to make good films as well as bad films. What cynics see are the big event pictures with massive production budgets and marketing campaigns, giving them the impression that that's all Hollywood makes. This is what brings in the money so obviously that's what theaters show. However, there are countless other films waiting to be discovered…online. Video-on-demand services have proven to be quite popular in recent years as it allows smaller-budgeted films the chance to find a wider audience. You can still see them in theaters if you want but it's often a limited release and you have to live in a major city like New York or Los Angeles. So why am I talking about all this? Well, one of my most anticipated films of September has just hit VOD and it's called "Honeymoon." Although it belongs to the horror genre, this isn't the type of horror that Hollywood usually releases. It's not about jump scares or blood and gore; it's about making your skin crawl. In that regard, "Honeymoon" is an unqualified success. Merging domestic drama with disturbing body horror, Leigh Janiak's directorial debut is a creepy, unsettling picture that will keep you riveted until the very end thanks to a pair of fantastic performances from Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway.

Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway) are a newlywed couple who embark on their honeymoon by driving up to a remote cabin in the woods that belongs to Bea's family. All is well as the two quickly settle into conjugal bliss. Following a tense encounter with Bea's former flame Will (Ben Huber) and his visibly troubled wife Annie (Hanna Brown), Paul wakes up in the middle of the night to find Bea missing. Concerned, he wanders outside into the woods and manages to locate his wife, naked, freezing, and covered in mud. Bea repeatedly insists that she was sleepwalking but Paul doesn't fully buy it as she has never sleepwalked before. Things take a strange turn in the following days as Bea becomes distant, with her behavior growing increasingly peculiar. A pair of odd marks on his wife's thighs leaves Paul troubled as he begins to suspect that something sinister took place in the woods and that the Bea standing before him might not be the same woman that he married.

Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway deliver fantastic performances as a newlywed couple whose honeymoon turns into a nightmare.

Despite its small budget and even smaller cast, Leigh Janiak's "Honeymoon" manages to accomplish quite a lot in the span of its eighty-seven minute running time and serves as proof of what an aspiring filmmaker with limited resources can achieve as long as he or she has a good idea (and a good script). Taking a page out of "The Evil Dead" and its ilk, the film opens with our newlywed couple driving up to a secluded summer cabin in the Canadian lake country for their honeymoon. Video footage taken on their wedding day is woven into this opening scene, providing subtle hints that Bea and Paul haven't known each other for long and that their marriage was perhaps a quickly planned affair. Janiak doesn't present the cabin as some foreboding, ominous place. In fact, it looks like any other cabin that you can find in a random vacation catalog. This sense of 'ordinariness' pervades the first act as Bea and Paul enjoy their new life together as a married couple but even here, the cracks are beginning to show. There's a bit of awkwardness in the way they interact, again suggesting that the two may have fallen in love too fast. It's also hinted that Paul is someone that gets easily jealous when Bea reunites with a former flame named Will, a reunion that turns into a tense affair when Will's wife Annie walks in saying that the newlyweds should immediately leave. Subtlety is one of the strengths of "Honeymoon": it drops clues that something is wrong but it doesn't overdo it or show its hand too early.

If there's one flaw, it's the explanation of what happened, which comes off as too pedestrian and formulaic.

Bea and Paul's wedded bliss comes to a halt when Paul wakes up in the middle of the night to find his wife missing. He manages to locate her in the woods but why was she there in the first place? And why is she naked? We immediately wonder whether she was sexually assaulted as Bea's strange behavior seems to support this. She keeps insisting that she was sleepwalking and seems to have trouble doing simple tasks like making French toast. It's at this point that "Honeymoon" takes a dark, disturbing turn and much of the horror stems from watching this very much in love couple slowly fall apart. Janiak does a wonderful job messing with our heads, leaving us in doubt about whether Bea and Paul are just experiencing growing pains stemming from their new marriage, or that something supernatural or otherworldly is involved. The film's biggest asset is its two lead performers, Rose Leslie (Ygritte from HBO's "Game of Thrones") and Harry Treadaway (Victor Frankenstein from ShowTime's "Penny Dreadful"). Both do a phenomenal job filling in the little details of their characters' relationship. Leslie in particular is a standout as her performance continuously hints that Bea, the real Bea, still exists, which is manifested by her character's maniacal protection over Paul but at the same time, she's also fighting some sort of inner battle with whatever that's taken hold of her when she went missing in the woods. Treadaway plays the part of a confused husband well and we sympathize with his character as he grows more and more angry over the fact that his honeymoon is being slowly turned into a nightmare. There's some icky body horror in the third act but what makes "Honeymoon" such a great film is the way Janiak slowly gets under our skin without resorting to cheap theatrics. The horror is derived from the characters themselves. If there's a flaw, it's the explanation of what happened as it feels too pedestrian and a little formulaic.

Premiering at South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, "Honeymoon" is currently in limited release and is also available on VOD. Reception has been positive so far with 78% on Rotten Tomatoes but there's not enough reviews to form a general consensus. Given its small production budget, "Honeymoon" should break even in no time while also elevating Janiak as someone to watch in the horror genre, which is noticeably lacking in female directors. Eschewing the glossiness of typical Hollywood horror films, "Honeymoon" emphasizes careful framing and its lead actors' performances to create a creepy, riveting atmosphere of dread. I really hope people seek this film out and to Janiak, I say this: please keep directing because we need more talented women working in the film industry. I eagerly await your next project.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5

"I just want to make you happy."