Blood Honey a bee-minus horror film at best
Liam Lacey
A Canadian psychological horror film that recalls the bad old tax shelter days of CanCon, Blood Honey hits that sour spot between stilted and shrill.
Shenae Grimes-Beech (of the TV series, 90210) stars as Jennibel, a young woman who returns to her childhood home on a remote island to see her estranged, dying beekeeper father (Gil Bellows), and finds herself caught up in the deranged community hive mind.
Shenae Grimes-Beech
After her dad offs himself by swarm-icide, his will is read by Dr. Bert (Don McKellar), Jennibel finds herself in a series of confrontations about the inheritance of the apiary with various local men with facial hair who drink a concoction of honey mixed with alcohol out of mason jars.
After quaffing some of the local brew herself, Jennibel finds herself subject to alarming Bee-movie hallucinations, involving montages of angry faces, childhood flashbacks, a honey-drenched sex scene, and a thundering music score.
"You're not making sense," screams Jennibel's late father to her late mother in one of the flashbacks.
"You're not making sense," her mother screams back at him.
But why argue when they're both right? Blood Honey was originally titled The Hive, a title more suited to a creature feature rather than the Rosemary's Baby-style gas-lighting drama to which it aspires. If I were marketing it, I'd probably just call it Revenge of the Drones and see who shows up.
Blood Honey is directed by Jeff Kopas, and co-written by Kopas and Doug Taylor. Cast: Shenae Grimes-Beech, Gil Bellows, Don McKellar, Rosemary Dunsmore,
Natalie Brown, Ken Mitchell and Krystal Nausbaum. Blood Honey can be seen at the Cineplex Yonge-Dundas.
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey is a former film critic for The Globe and Mail, as well as contributor to various other media outlets over the past 37 years.. He recently returned to Canada from Spain because he forgot about the weather