Funereal Plots

Horror Cinema reviews

Matthew M. Bartlett

Honey Bunch

Writer/Director: Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli


At the beginning of Honey Bunch, Homer (Ben Petrie) takes his wife Diana (Grace Glowicki) from her wheelchair and carries her into the ocean. He tells her he loves her, then lowers her into the roiling waters.

Cut to earlier days. The pair are driving through woods on a sunny day. Grace looks healthier than in the opening scene, but evinces memory loss issues and confusion—we learn that the couple was in a car accident. They arrive at an experimental trauma center. Then the fun begins.

Honey Bunch is a throwback in the best way. It’s shot like the cinema that of earlier decades that it frequently (and overtly) references. There are touches of The Stepford Wives, Rebecca, even Don’t Look Now. Paranoia reigns as Diana catches Homer in secretive conversations with the head of therapy, sees an enigmatic blonde figure staring at her, and the fleeing into the woods. All of this is deepened and made more real by flashbacks of the characters arguing and being silly with one another.

The plot thickens as new arrival Josephina (India Brown), accompanied by her father Joseph (Jason Isaacs), meet the couple and begin her therapy, with her father’s vocal and enthusiastic and hopeful encouragement. Homer and Joseph confer in secret—they know something we, the audience, do not.

And here we enter spoiler territory. Diana discovers that the mysterious blonde woman she’s been spotting is, in fact, a clone. She then discovers other patients sitting in groups with multiple doppelgangers of themselves. The facility is, in fact, attempting to replace deceased people with clones. Most of the doppelgangers are the failed versions. At one point, she sees Homer caring for the clones, showing deep love for each of them, and he is redeemed in her eyes—mostly, anyway.

Meanwhile, when Joseph’s daughter fails to respond to the treatment, his enthusiasm and devotion turns to disappointment, and then rage, and the desire for revenge. Diana, who seems whole again, escapes with Homer in the confusion of the conflagration after trying and failing to save her clones. The denouement mirrors the opening of the movie in an unexpected and satisfying way.

So, in the end, Homer is revealed to be less of a creep than we might have expected, the couple more solidly in love than we might have originally thought. There are countless horror movies that explore people trying to bring back from the grave people they loved. This is one of the more effective ones. Dripping with atmosphere and intrigue and soundtracked by ethereal dreamlike music and curious old songs, Honey Bunch looks and feels like a classic.

And the pun in the title is the cherry on top of the sundae.