Written & directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, “Sting” (2024) is a horror film that unfolds in a single location. It revolves around a young girl who finds a strange spider that begins to terrorize her entire apartment complex. Alyla Browne stars as the young girl, whereas Ryan Corr plays her stepfather. Besides them, the film stars Jermaine Fowler, Penelope Mitchell, Silvia Colloca, Robyn Nevin, Noni Hazlehurst, Rowland Holmes, and Danny Kim. The film will likely appease horror fans who are looking for a flick about a mysterious entity terrorizing a group of humans.
Spoilers Ahead
Sting (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Sting” follows Charlotte, a young girl who takes care of an alien spider in her room. The spider amuses her at first, but soon after, it starts to terrify everyone in her apartment complex and make their lives miserable.
What happens in the ‘Sting’ movie?
“Sting” follows the residents of an apartment complex as they get caught up in the nightmarish situation. It begins with a spider mysteriously appearing in one of the apartments. A young girl, Charlotte (Alyla Browne), finds it and decides to keep it as her pet. Then she sneaks out of her grandmother’s house through the air-vent passageway. Gunter (Robyn Nevin), an old woman who is in charge of their building’s management, believes Charlotte broke the glass of her window. So, she confronts Ethan (Ryan Corr) about it. Ethan, who’s in a relationship with Charlotte’s single mother, Heather (Penelope Mitchell), denies Gunter’s claims.
Later, Ethan asks Charlotte whether she went into Gunter’s storeroom. Charlotte says she didn’t. Ethan goes back to his work as a graphic novelist. Charlotte comes in to offer a suggestion for one of his characters, who reminds her of her estranged father. Ethan appreciates Charlotte’s suggestion but doesn’t use it once she leaves his room. Meanwhile, Charlotte doesn’t tell him or her mother about the spider but remains curious about it. She traps a cockroach and offers it to the spider to eat. The spider engulfs it, and Charlotte admires its skill. She names it ‘Sting.’
What happens in the apartment complex?
As the part-time caretaker of the building, Ethan looks around for any maintenance issues. He helps Maria (Silvia Colloca) with a plumbing issue at her apartment. Heather takes care of her old mother, Helga (Noni Hazlehurst), who suffers from memory loss issues. While she puts Helga to sleep, Ethan takes care of their baby. Later that night, Ethan walks into Charlotte’s room in her absence. He looks at the jar that she uses to keep the spider. Then, he notices her sketch of a giant spider. Once she returns to the room, he asks if he can use that idea for his novel.
Ethan worries that Charlotte may never accept him as her father. Heather makes him see how much Charlotte values him. Meanwhile, the spider in Charlotte’s room gets surprisingly bigger and attacks the parrot in Helga’s room. So, Ethan calls exterminator Frank (Jermaine Fowler) to look for the cause and help to not let something similar happen again. Back in her room, Charlotte conducts multiple experiments to analyze the spider’s behavior. She feeds it cockroaches and realizes that mothballs can harm it. Also, she notices it repeats the sound it hears.
What happens after Frank visits the apartment complex?
Frank looks around the apartment complex for signs of any damage. He sprays the whole building as per his job requirements. But Gunter, who behaves as if she has come straight from the set of Netflix’s Wednesday, pays him only half the amount. Ethan cannot help Frank either to get his deserved pay. However, despite Frank’s work, the building witnesses more deaths. The spider appears in Maria’s apartment and kills it. No one can understand who is behind this sudden series of tragedies.
Meanwhile, Charlotte decides to meet one of their neighbors, Eric (Danny Kim), who lives off his mother’s money and keeps experimenting with something in his apartment. He hopes to find a cure for a deadly disease through his extensive work. Charlotte meets him to talk about the spider. She says that it can talk, almost like how a talking parrot repeats what it hears. Eric explains that spiders don’t have any vocal cords, which makes it impossible for them to talk. But he soon realizes something specific about the spider.
What does Eric think about the spider?
Eric recognises Charlotte’s spider to be one of the rare species. So, he decides to investigate the case for her with an experiment. He says he’ll bring it back to her afterward. She agrees. Back at her apartment, Ethan and Heather talk about their work plans. Suddenly, they hear a movement in the air vent. So, Ethan enters it to check for any issues. Suddenly, Maria’s dog appears there and scares him. So, Ethan walks to her apartment to return it. Inside, he finds Maria’s dead body near the bathtub.
Soon after, Ethan shows up at Eric’s apartment to learn about the spider. Eric thinks they should hand it over to the Department of Health and Safety. Ethan agrees to do so without asking Charlotte if she is fine with it. So, Charlotte gets furious at him. In the heat of the moment, Ethan blurts out the truth about her biological father. He doesn’t live in Thailand as he told her, but in the same town that they do. This argument creates a bigger rift between Ethan & Charlotte.
Sting (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
Due to the recent turn of events, the apartment complex residents start growing miserable. The spider affects their mental health and makes them behave erratically. Because of it, Ethan accidentally breaks his television. So, he and Heather get into a heated argument. Suddenly, a gigantic spider appears on the side and stings them both. It traps them in its web. Soon after, Charlotte hears something strange in the air-vent passageway. Subsequently, she gets some things to fight whatever’s inside. Inside the vent, she notices a dead animal caught in the web.
What happens to Charlotte & Ethan in the end?
Charlotte notices Eric caught in a spider web in his apartment. While she starts walking through the air-vent passageway, Heather hears the noise and calls for an exterminator. Again, Frank shows up there for inspection. But he gets sucked into a vent by the spider. Meanwhile, Charlotte finds Ethan and rescues him from the web with mothball water that hurts the spider. Then they find Frank dropped down from the vent, panicking. Within moments, the spider beheads Frank.
Nevertheless, Charlotte and Eric find Heather and the baby and try to rescue them. So, Eric volunteers to kill the spider with mothball water. But in the process, he loses his life. The family says their goodbyes to each other, thinking Ethan sacrificed himself for the greater good. But the spider remains dormant in their building.
