FANTASTIC FEST 2025 REVIEW! Obsessed lovers say, “I’d do anything for you.” Taking that hyperbole to literal extremes is explored in horror romance Honey Bunch, written and directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. Diana (Grace Glowicki) has been in a terrible accident, which she does not remember. Her husband Homer (Ben Petrie) brings her to an isolated facility for a new treatment to strengthen her body and restore her mind.
The treatment methods are unclear except for medicines, exercise, and sessions spent exposed to a strobe light. Farah (Kate Dickie), who runs the facility, tells them that if Diana follows the program, she has a good chance for recovery. As time passes, the therapy intensifies, and Diana begins to get flashes of memories. She also sees disturbing events she can’t explain. Soon, she suspects that all is not as it appears and that her husband isn’t telling her everything.
Diana and Homer have been together for years. Diana recalls the day they met at college, where she saw Homer. She was intrigued, and when she met him, they clicked and have been together ever since. She takes a romantic view of love and connection, choosing to believe in soulmates and eternal passion. Homer, on the other hand, is pragmatic and pessimistic about love, despite feeling deeply for his wife. Homer is also not as attractive as Diana, and he’s insecure about that, needing her constant reassurance. There is another patient at the facility, a young woman named Josephina (Inda Brown), with her father, Joseph (Jason Isaac). He is cheerfully unhinged in his manic positivity, coaching Josephina’s treatment.
“…she’s in a mysterious treatment facility after an accident she does not remember…”
The mastermind behind the ambitious program, Dr. Tréphine (Patricia Tulasne), is seldom seen, and the details of her cure are withheld until a shocking third-act reveal. The treatment, however, is of secondary concern to the film. The heart of the narrative is just how far someone would go for their beloved person, and at what point does that obsession morph from caregiving into a narcissistic panic over possibly losing their partner?
The decade is unclear, as there are late-model cars, but no mobile phones. The location looks to be in the English countryside, and the staff have English accents. The building is an aging, elegant manor house, with yellowing wallpaper and quaint furniture, on beautifully landscaped grounds with trails that lead to a raging waterfall. The gym equipment looks like it came from the spa on the Titanic. This is the perfect setting for a classic ghost story, but something else is afoot here.
"…builds a mighty engine of dread..."
