Honeydew (Movie Review)

Making his feature filmmaking debut, Devereux Milburn steps confidently into the pantheon of backwoods horror to deliver Honeydew, a surreal and eerie first effort. Aided by a committed and effective cast, Milburn aims to traumatize an unsuspecting audience with a slow burn that spirals into a troubling third act that is sure to turn a few stomachs.

Malin Barr stars alongside Sawyer Spielberg as a couple, Rylie and Sam, on a road trip who are forced to seek help when their car breaks down. They find themselves at the doorstep of a seemingly sweet, but peculiar old woman, Karen (Barbara Kingsley), who offers to call a neighbor to assist them. As the day draws long, Karen offers her home up to the couple for the night, but Rylie and Same begin to experience strange cravings and hallucinations as it becomes evident this bucolic respite isn’t quite what it seems.

Within the trappings of a mostly familiar setup, Milburn works in a number of interesting ideas regarding religious notions of the body and twisted obsessions of lineage. Both of these ideas factor into the various skin-crawling elements at play, but Milburn’s uncomfortable cinema styling is less about gore and more about the power of suggestion. Honeydew’s final act is particularly indicative of this strategy. It’s all about the character’s behavior and line delivery that makes the audience uneasy about the acts we are seeing. The mourning sense of dread throughout the film does a lot of work in helping viewers conjure the necessary images that play into the squirm inducing ideas.

Honeydew does, however, take quite some time to get to its ultimate destination. For some, the film may feel a lot like the process of digestion in reverse where the payoff to the meal doesn’t come until the end. A trio of very good performances, some dipping into the downright bizarre, offers engaging personalities for the audience, managing to carry us along. Plus, if you follow the breadcrumbs Milburn spreads throughout, it’s not hard to put together where the story is going before you actually get there.

It’s undoubtedly refreshing to see someone with Spielberg’s parentage co-lead a film this strange and undeniably outside of the mainstream. Milburn, on the other hand, uses his debut feature to announce a talented voice that’s willing to charge upstream to tell an off-kilter genre story with obvious horror roots. Honeydew is a fruit of particular tastes sure to be a tad too tough to chew for certain audiences.