Review of Honeymoon (2014) by Brett H — 17 Feb 2016

An absolute gem of a horror film I stumbled upon that is both terrifyingly simple and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful that overcomes the genre's cliches through stylish camerawork and very impressive acting.

Honeymoon follows two young lovers who vacation away to the bride's family cabin, and what starts out as a romantic getaway soon turns sinister when his wife's behaviour drastically changes following a sleepwalking episode in the woods.

The filmmakers make it fairly obvious from the get-go what is going on, but they never give you the full picture; leaving your head spinning with questions throughout and you find it impossible to look away from the screen.

The acting from the two leads, Harry Treadaway and Rose Leslie is phenomenal; I fully believed they were a real couple and obviously identified strongly with the husband who's desperately trying to escape this nightmare and find out why his wife has become so cold and distant to him.

The film gets progressively nastier as Bea (the wife)'s body begins to show signs of infection and other ailments, culminating in a truly disgusting scene in a bathtub and a foreign object; true definition of horror.

In many ways, this type of "cabin-in-the-woods-everything-goes-to-hell" plotline has been done to death, but if you execute it right and create genuine suspense, I'm on-board, and this film chilled me to the bone in some scenes with its uncomfortable energy.

A smaller horror film for sure, but sometimes great things come in small packages and this succeeded in keeping me on edge and biting my nails right up until the fittingly dark ending.