Honeydew (2021).
Directed by Devereux Milburn
Written by Devereux Milburn and Dan Kennedy
Starring Malin Barr, Sawyer Spielberg, Barbara Kingsley, and Jamie Bradley
The Stage.
A bickering couple heads out into the woods on a camping trip. When they are kicked out of their camp site in the middle of the night, they are forced to walk through the remote wilderness and stumble upon an old woman’s house. She invites them in for what could be their last supper.
The Review.
I’m going to try to be as vague with this as possible because if you’re interested in seeing Honeydew, it’s best to go in blind. This stars Malin Barr as Rylie, an aspiring botanist. She and her boyfriend Sam, an aspiring actor played by Sawyer Spielberg - yes, Steven Spielberg’s son, head out to the wilderness to check out an area that has been plagued by a wheat spore.
After some shenanigans, they find themselves at an old house in the woods, one reminiscent of the Hewitt’s in Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Once inside, they meet the old woman’s son, Gunni, an invalid who suffers from seizures and watches a fuzzy black and white TV all day. The woman offers to call a neighbor to give them a lift to fix their car, but he never shows, so they have dinner and get ready to stay for the night…and as you can infer, things get weird.
Honeydew has some really great elements - the editing is exotic and the sound design is haunting. The sound queues and purposeful cuts add a fantastic layer of tension and just generally made me feel uncomfortable. The camera also moves in interesting ways. The craft behind Honeydew was top notch. Unfortunately, as you start to get used to the filmmaking techniques, the story we’re left with isn’t that interesting. It’s like watching the Hewitt family on their day off. It goes to some pretty weird places, but it’s not that unexpected if you’re paying attention. Someone online had mentioned a ‘twist’, and I just never saw that aspect of the film. The last act kind of drags on a bit and promises some insanity but then never delivers.
The End.
I think Devereux Milburn is a really talented guy, he certainly has an eye for atmosphere…but atmosphere can only get you so far. I think this film started out much stronger than it ended, but I’m looking forward to what he does next. Oh, and if you’re avoiding this because Lena Dunham is in the cast, don’t worry about her - she’s only in the film for like 2 minutes, and you probably won’t recognize her anyway. I think Honeydew is a pretty safe skip.
