Director Kiah Roache-Turner's (the Wyrmwood movies, Nekrotronic) latest horror flick, Sting, crawls into theaters this weekend, and those among you who usually run a mile from our eight-legged friends may want to steer clear!
Though it may seem hard to believe, that's exactly what Roache-Turner would tend to do, as he suffers with severe arachnophobia!
“I’m rabidly arachnophobic," the filmmaker tells Bloody Disgusting. "I don’t remember this, but my mother says that I was playing in a sandpit when I was about two and got bitten by a giant Australian spider, which I assume would’ve been a Huntsman because they get really big. They can get as big as dinner plates sometimes. So, that probably is the reason for me being just, like, yeah, when I see a spider, I go into a fight [mode]. I start tearing up. It’s quite terrible. I actually get that scared.”
So, what on Earth would possess an arachnophobe to helm a movie about a lethal giant spider?
“There’s something about the shape and the movement that actually freaks me out, so making this film was traumatic," he continued. "I was hoping that if I just sat with spiders for two straight years, that I’d be cured. It’s like, nah, man, nothing has changed. All I’ve done is traumatize myself and, now hopefully, the world."
You can check out the most recent trailer for Sting below.
“One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider…
The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Despite her stepfather Ethan’s best efforts to connect with her through their comic book co-creation, Fang Girl, Charlotte feels isolated. Her mother and Ethan are distracted by their new baby and are struggling to cope, leaving Charlotte to bond with the spider. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
As Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable. Neighbours’ pets start to go missing, and then the neighbours themselves. Soon Charlotte’s family and the eccentric characters of the building realize that they are all trapped, hunted by a ravenous supersized arachnid with a taste for human flesh… and Charlotte is the only one who knows how to stop it.”
Sting hits theaters on April 12, 2024.