EIFF 2014: Honeymoon

Brits Harry Treadaway and Game of Throne's Rose Leslie are fresh-faced American newlyweds Paul and Bea in Leigh Janiak’s entertaining if problematic horror film Honeymoon. While snuggled up in a secluded lake house, the couple’s post-matrimonial bliss takes a turn for the sinister after Paul finds Bea alone in the woods in the middle of the night, noticeably traumatised. Soon Bea’s memory begins to lapse, strange pattern-like marks on her thighs worsen, weird lights penetrate their inner sanctum, and mysterious goo abounds.

Janiak shows talent for creating mood, and the two leads (especially Leslie) are generally quite good at anchoring what is essentially a two-character film. It’s certainly creepy, but it’s too po-faced to be much fun and too flimsy to be truly scary. Unfortunately the whole “monstrous feminine” aspect threatens to turn the allegory about the fear of not truly knowing your partner into that horror of horrors: the perfect girlfriend becoming the nightmare wife, complete with poorly prepared breakfasts and feigning headaches to get out of sex.