It almost seems a little cruel to set your horror movie during someone's honeymoon. I mean, traditionally, that's like one of the happiest times in a person's life, yeah? It feels a little below the belt, if you will. Also, the fact that there are generally only 2 people on a honeymoon makes the potential victim list rather small. But the setting works pretty well in Honeymoon. It's a pretty quiet, low key, and uneasy feeling film - but ultimately, it delivers. The honeymoon setting isn't vital to the story or anything, but it gives things a little more dramatic heft. Plus, it makes it a little easier for the audience to care for our main characters - as opposed to if it was just a trip or whatever.
Bea and Paul are the two newlyweds here. They go to Bea's family cabin, which is isolated way out in the woods. But everyone wants a little privacy on their honeymoon, right? It just makes getting help a little more difficult in the off chance something horrible should happen... Well, one night, Bea wanders out in the woods (or was she led there?), kind of sleepwalking or something. Paul finds her in a daze. After that, something is wrong with Bea - she seems to be forgetting things and just doesn't seem entirely present. But what could have happened out there in the woods?
There isn't really any need to go further than that. Honeymoon is a pretty well-made slow burn chiller, and I guess the less you know about it, the better.
The set-up is really pretty solid. The video that Bea and Paul shot at their wedding plays over the credits - it's a pretty clever way to introduce them to the audience. Both of them share the story of how they met, how he proposed - it's seems funny, sweet, and most importantly realistic and relatable. When they get to the cabin, there is a nice long take where Bea shows Paul around the cabin and they just get excited about about the impending honeymoon, clearly in the afterglow of their big day and way in love. So you are really on their side right off the bat.
Both lead performances in this film are really good. Rose Leslie has the more demanding role as Bea - she has to contend a bit with losing her mind a bit, but still being kind of there. And she nails it - Leslie wears that struggle on her face well. There are also a couple of times where it is a physically demanding role - you end up feeling a little bad for Bea the character and Rose the actress... Harry Treadway, who plays Paul, is solid too. It's an interesting set-up - at first, the film kind of asks "how well do I really know the person I just married?" You don't *ever* expect your marriage to crumble, much less on your honeymoon. Treadway does a good job showing both the confusion and anger, but also the tentativeness of someone in this sort of situation.
Honeymoon is very well-made too. Director Leigh Janek has shot a really nice looking film, and it's put together in such a way that there is just a feeling of uneasiness that permeates the whole thing. It's got an appropriately slow build where you just know *something* bad is going to happen - you just don't really know what. And you'll notice there is nothing in the labels on this entry here - it's rare that a film can keep it's big-bad/sub-genre a secret for most of the run-time and still be successful, but it works here. And Honeymoon keeps it's hand hidden in other ways too - there isn't an awful lot of gruesomeness for most of the film, but then when it hits - hot damn. If it wasn't for this one sequence (that actually left me wide-eyed with my mouth agape) I'm not even sure if it would need to be R-rated. The relative tameness leading up to it makes it even more effective.
Normally, I'd like to get a little more into specifics, but Honeymoon is the kind of film that works best not really knowing what you're getting into. Needless to say, it's a really effective slow-burn horror film - so long as you aren't hoping for thrill-a-minute craziness, there's a lot to like here.
I would recommend this film.
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