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Royal Jelly
USA 2021
produced by Sean Riley, Candy Riley, Hrilina LLC (executive), Daniel S. Allen (executive), Michael Cline (executive), Sherry Lattanzi (executive), Tim Dailey (executive) for Integral Motion Pictures
directed by Sean Riley
starring Elizabeth McCoy, Sherry Lattanzi, Lucas T. Matchett, Jake McCoy, Raylen Ladner, Nicole Prunty, Hrilina Rakhs, Jesse Hartsog, Jonas Chartock, Fiona McQuinn, Ayla Miller, Justin Davis, G. Tremain Merrell, Christopher Boler, Morgan Dean, Dillan Brown, Lory Tom Thompson sr, Adrienne Newell, Diana Sue, Jacquelyn Elder-Merideth, Corey Luttrell, Lewis Rogers, Allen Hopkins, Charlesia Means, Tim Tanner, Devin Stevenson, Tavin Chandler, Mary Alden Luttrell, Julia Smith, Harleigh Dahl, Jonathan Dahl, Taia Phillips, Deuce Miner, Sophia Dean, Sage Dean, Jackson Bell, Laya Riser
written by Sean Riley, music by Joe Hodgin, visual effects by Jonathan Hammond
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Aster (Elizabeth McCoy) is an outcast at her school, and thus the
target of massive bullying, something even her stepsister Drew (Raylen
Ladner) participates in. And her favourite pastime, bee-keeping, seems to
utterly brand her as the school's weirdo. Enter Tresa (Sherry Lattanzi), a
substitute teacher that sees potential in the girl - but more than that,
she not only encourages Aster to egg the house of one of her bullies, she
even participates in it. However, that bully avenges herself by destroying
Aster's beehives. In shock over this, Aster accepts Tresa's offer to come
and live with her. At first, everything's wonderful, Tresa lives in a
beautiful mansion in a very serene, almost fairytale like stretch of land,
she encourages Aster to build new beehives and helps with bee-keeping with
almost as much enthusiasm as Aster. Also, Aster is quick to take a liking
to Tresa's son Henry (Lucas T. Matchett), who's roughly her age. But
things soon get weird when Henry starts to develop a rash, and while Aster
wants to get him to a hospital, Tresa just expells him from her home -
which leads Aster to secretly invite him to her room that night and they
have sex, only for him to be gone the next day. In the morning then, Aster
finds a new guy at the breakfast table, simpleton David (Jake McCoy), whom
Tresa has apparently chosen as Aster's new partner, and she also flatly
ignores all of Aster's inquiries in regards to Henry. Eventually, Aster
shows first signs of pregnancy, and from here on things get really weird,
as it soon becomes clear whatever she's carrying inside her might not be
quite human ...
No matter how you look at it, this is a rather unusual film:
While it starts out like a typical high school movie, with all the tropes
firmly in place, it soon transcends genre confines and morphs into a fairy
tale-ish story, which is also mirrored in the film's atmospheric shift to
a hyper-reality full of light and bright colours - something so
exaggerated it's clear it can't last ... and indeed it doesn't when the
movie plunges in horror territory, and sure doesn't hold back when it
comes to gruesomeness, to mount to a finale that borders surrealism. But
while this might sound terribly hodge podge, the film feels like a
coherent whole, carried by a self-assured and style-conscious directorial
effort, a story that, despite leaving open many questions, does have its
inner logic throughout, and a very competent cast giving relatable
performances. And the whole thing amounts to an enjoyable piece of
weirdness.
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