Newlyweds Bea (Rose Leslie) and Paul (Harry Treadaway) escape their city lives for the rural retreat on their honeymoon. Appearing all loved up fresh from their recent vows, their arrival is welcomed by the awkward introduction of one of Bea’s old flames. Disappearing into the night, Bea suddenly becomes wrapped up in herself and the woman Paul had married only days before begins to show a different side. Over the next 5 days, until death do us part becomes an apt phrase as the week away becomes an unravelling psychological battlefield for the pair.

 

Leslie and Paul may come across as sickeningly sweet and the opening scenes may require a sick bucket than the entirety of the rest of the film but ‘The Notebook’ this isn’t. The transformation from innocence to unsettling is portrayed brilliantly between Treadaway and Leslie and becomes more unsettling throughout. Both have a great chemistry and when events begin to unravel, it becomes difficult to see who is going mad.

 

Has Bea’s late night walk turned her into something else or is Paul actually becoming more and more paranoid throughout the ordeal? When the truth comes out, it’s more shocking than could have been originally thought. Both stars manage to make the events believable showing that Leslie can be more than Jon Snow’s mistress for which she is currently stereotyped with.

 

‘Honeymoon’ is your cabin in the woods thriller that doesn’t hold cliche to the genre. Despite sharing a relatively small budget, director Leigh Janiak’s directorial debut could not ask for anything more to put her on a pedestal as one to watch. Unnerving and unsettling throughout, it’s dirty, old era (the cabin is dressed in 90’s TV’s and 60’s lampshades) look does well to add to the isolation and claustrophobic sense of the 90 minute film.

 

Without shedding spoilers, ‘Honeymoon’ has thematically much in common with this years other low budget masterpiece, ‘Under the Skin’. If you enjoyed the slow burned payoff and emotional turmoil that Michael Glazers adaptation held then ‘Honeymoon’ is the perfect companion piece. Both films holding a simple story played out by it’s leads with perfection and without Treadaway and Leslie this film may not have been as great as it was but thank heavens that they were. Just take note that if your other half encourages a honeymoon out in the sticks, then this is the perfect snapshot to think twice.

 

Janiak’s psychological thriller is the perfect example of how a good script and fine performances can turn a simple low budget tale into something that is both gripping and memorable. ‘Honeymoon’ is edge-of-your-seat tension, something you don’t expect from a honeymoon (not mine at least) but makes for Janiak’s perfect debut.