Every once in a while, a totally DIY, low budget horror film comes out, that despite its production shortcomings, still has an enticing premise and a sense of vision behind it. Right now, that film is Avalon Fast’s Honeycomb.
It would be hard to say Honeycomb is “good” or produced well, but the raw chaotic energy behind it can’t help but draw you in. The film both takes its philosophy seriously and at the same time has a lot of fun with it and is very much “in on the joke.”
Honeycomb has the feeling of being at a house party at 5 a.m., when everything is in a haze, you’re in a daze and the people still there don’t know if they’re staying or leaving.
Fast uses a group of her friends to act in this no-budget film that she partially based on their lives. At best, it resembles the iconic films of Sarah Jacobson and the early films of John Waters. At the least, this film shows a promising future for director Fast.
Honeycomb starts out with a troupe of jaded young girls (Jillian Frank, Destini Stewart, Mari Geraghty, Sophie Bawks-Smith and Rowan Wales) during the summer after they graduate high school, aimlessly wandering their town. One of them discovers an abandoned shack in the middle of the woods and decides to move into it. She then convinces her friends (extremely easily) to completely abandon their lives and move into the shack with her and form their own community.
The girls all sleep in a pile and live party to party, where they invite their guy friends to the house but only if they wear blindfolds so they don’t know their location. Outside of partying, they lounge, hungover and listless, in fields discussing rules for their community. What starts out harmless becomes more resentful as the girls’ create turmoil between each other.
As the girls say, “don’t pray for serenity, pray for chaos,” which is serious and yet weird and bizarre, funny and crazy. Honeycomb embodies the female urge to shake off society, quit your job and move into a shack in the middle of the woods with your gal pals. It’s a punk rock exploration of the ephemeral space in a girl’s life as she transitions into adulthood and potentially leaves her friends forever.
At a time when a show like Yellowjackets is popular, it seems that groups of girls living in the woods and taking things way too far is a running trend. Of course, there are also obvious parallels to Lord of the Flies.
The relationship between this group of characters is intriguing. From the start, the girls vehemently insist on being as close as possible, demanding that they share all of their feelings with the group. They also try to prevent cliques from forming when the girls fight by putting revenge solely into the hands of the hurt party. While these rules have good intentions, they quickly backfire as the girls start drama over feelings revealed during their sharing sessions, potentially due to alcohol and drug-induced day-after mood swings.
Similarly, the relationship between them and “the guys” is complicated, as the guys continue to come to their parties and hang out with them, but talk about them behind their backs and secretly view them as beneath them. The girls react to them with almost complete disinterest, choosing instead to continue throwing themselves into their new lives in the shack.
It’s purposefully unclear what their ultimate goal with all of this is, while desperately trying to find some meaning, like life will somehow make sense after this. They even set up an elaborate altar area for them to pray at every morning, but haven’t decided what yet they will pray to. In reality, a common source of confusion and anxiety in younger generations is not subscribing to the established religions that their parents subscribe to, but still feeling a connection to spirituality that they don’t label, which is reflected here.
Despite the amateur nature of the filmmaking, the use of the camera in Honeycomb is never unintentional and there is a clear eye for simple style, such as the camera going out of focus to enhance sunbeams or the framing and composition the film has in its shots.
Don’t go into this expecting stellar acting. If that’s a big turnoff for you, then this is not the film for you. This film is definitely for a much more open horror film viewer who doesn’t mind a film at basically the quality of a student thesis. That’s not necessarily bashing the film; it’s just the reality of the production.
Honeycomb revels in chaos and guerrilla filmmaking sensibilities. It’s rarely pretty, meandering and rough, but at the same time has a relatable and engaging edge to it.
Honeycomb is currently playing in the Slamdance Film Festival until February 6. The festival, which is online and only $10, includes over 100 films to view.