Review of Honeymoon (2014) by Trevor K — 28 Aug 2016

Utterly annoying. Two credible actors are given cloying, insufferable sweetness in their newlywed life. These initial scenes we've seen a thousand times before, where the two describe how they met and how the proposal was so sweet. These outward protestations of love and affection are meant to elicit sympathy for our protagonists; they instead ring false and are immediately off-putting. The scene in which the new bride, Bea, gives a tour of the cabin they are staying in for the honeymoon is overindulgence made manifest, both in writing and performance. Our fresh groom's reaction is idiotically gleeful. Rather than causing one to share the joy of their new love, it makes one doubt one's ability to sympathize with these characters, despite the terror we know is coming.

When a horror film has the structure of the slow drip mentality, where each clue leads slightly further down a dark tunnel, the clues must be subtle and the sleuth on the other end must needs act admirably and smartly; otherwise the film falls in on itself, suspension of disbelief is lost, and the audience begins to inwardly hope for the demise of our shamelessly stupid protagonist. Honeymoon leaves clues with the size and subtlety of a mack truck and our sleuth is gobsmackingly slow on the uptake. I was glad to see his end.