Review: ‘Honey Bunch’ invokes sweet hysteria

Actor, writer, and director Madeleine Sims-Fewer (behind 2020’s excellent Violation) enlists her frequent collaborator Dusty Mancinelli for a wild, dystopian roller coaster with Honey Bunch. Horror has long danced alongside and with sci-fi, and this particular blend roots itself in a grounded reality from which we are not that far removed. The script tightly winds itself around human desperation, the lengths we’ll go to find answers, and the role of the healthcare system in our lives. From the very opening frame, the audience can deduce that what we’re about to experience is somewhat of a heightened world, almost reminiscent of a Dali painting.

Diana (Grace Glowicki) wakes from a coma following a tragic car accident. But she can’t remember any of it. Suffering from severe brain damage, she agrees to experimental treatment at a secluded facility. Her husband Homer (Ben Petrie) remains hopeful that this lauded physical and mental therapy will trigger Diana’s memory. When they arrive at the immense estate, another couple is seen leaving, and presumably, the treatment worked. There’s something slightly off-kilter about it all, however, from the way Homer and Diana are greeted by Farah (Kate Dickie) to the house’s seemingly looming presence. Diana can’t put her finger on it, but she harbors deep reservations about what she’s just agreed.

Set over four days, the fast-tracked treatment includes intense exercise and immersion therapy. Farah recreates the car accident, complete with broken sugar glass at Diana’s feet and a constant flashing of a taillight. It’s within such extreme measures to which Farah and Homer cling. And sometimes, that’s the only way to unlock suppressed or lost memories. As each day tumbles into the next, Diana hallucinates what she comes to learn are those memories, simply hidden beneath layers of trauma. Reality around her begins to distort and transform, too, and her mind refuses to let her differentiate between the two. It could be a dream, her mind’s way of finally processing the life-altering event, or something else entirely.

Cinematographer Adam Crosby, who also worked on Violation, understands the assignment. He brings a sense of disturbing whimsy to the story that underscores Diana’s slow deterioration. In appropriate doses, the visual style makes the viewer feel as though they’re being driven mad, as well. Mancinelli and Sims-Fewer craft such a deliciously diabolical story that makes for a contender for one of the best of 2026. It’s only February, but that’s a well-deserved assessment. Glowicki and Petrie further boost the story with emotionally wrought performances that wring the human experience dry—there’s a range of shock, rage, and gutting sadness draining from the screen.

Honey Bunch will be one of those horror films that either works or doesn’t for the audience. But a polarizing story is far preferred to one that sits in the middle of the road with nothing of significance to say. Whether it sparks positive or negative reactions, we’ll all be talking about it, at the very least. Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s film confronts uncomfortable truths, provokes you to think below the surface, and supplies plenty of chills required for a damn horrifying tale. It has all you could possibly want.

Honey Bunch hits Shudder this Friday (February 13) and makes for a wonderfully unhinged Valentine’s Day datenight movie.