Honey Bunch is filmmaking team Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s follow-up to their previous feature Violation, which made waves at the festival back in 2020 as part of the Midnight Madness programme. Although somewhat similar in appearance (particularly in terms of colouring and location) and its psychological approach to horror, Honey Bunch finds Fewer and Mancinelli working with a slightly bigger canvas and a more comedic, scientific, and paranoid shift in tone. Honey Bunch is an exciting and engaging chiller that’s as intellectually engaging as it is entertaining.
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School teachers and loving couple Diana (Grace Glowicki) and Homer (Ben Petrie) have made their way to a remote rehabilitation facility located deep in the woods. Diana has recently awoken from a coma, and the primary doctor at the clinic (Patricia Tulanse) specializes in an experimental form of therapy. The goal is to help Diana remember the source of her trauma through a form of sensory stimulation. Bits and pieces start coming back to her, but Diana also experiences troubling hallucinations that might not have anything to do with her memory loss. Interactions with father (Jason Isaacs) and a similarly afflicted daughter (India Brown) at the clinic raise Diana’s suspicions further that something isn’t right, and that her husband and the hospital staff aren’t telling the full story.
It’s a solid idea and setting for a kind of thriller that has been done before, one that offers Fewer and Mancinelli ample opportunity to slowly build tension, sow the seeds of mistrust, and offer plenty of moody atmosphere (punctuated nicely by an evocative, top notch musical score). The 70s aesthetics and settings of this period piece are nicely realized, and filmed in a fashion that makes Honey Bunch frequently look like a docudrama with some horror and sci-fi asides. As Honey Bunch goes forward, en route to a twist that I admittedly couldn’t fully predict, Fewer and Mancinelli are able to craft a thriller that plays on misperception, but also boasts lots of empathy and relatable human sadness. Fewer and Macinelli’s material provides plenty of menace, but also a smart examination of what sets memory apart from identity.
Honey Bunch makes perfect use of its leads, a formidable filmmaking team in their own right (who are also responsible for the feature Dead Lover, also at this year’s festival). Glowicki’s innocence and inner strength plays perfectly against Petrie’s creepiness and earnestness. Their chemistry is the final piece of the puzzle to make Honey Bunch a memorably creative genre effort.
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 – 6:30 pm – TIFF Lightbox 2
Saturday, September 13, 2025 – 2:30 pm – Scotiabank Theatre 4
