Honeymoon Review

In 2021 , Netflix dared with a little experiment: to release a horror trilogy such as Fear Street for three weeks, generating a bit of conversation among fans of the genre. Leigh Janiak was in charge of the writing and especially directing work , and seeing the remarkable result with that trilogy, I wanted to investigate a bit to see if she had any previous work. My search turned out to be quite positive, and taking advantage of the voice of a director in terror, I couldn't sit idly by without giving her a little halo of light. I'm talking about Honeymoon.

Paul and Bea are a newlywed couple who are going to spend their honeymoon in a remote cabin near the lake in Canada. Everything seems to be going smoothly, until one night Paul finds Bea disoriented in the woods, something she attributes to possible sleepwalking. But Bea's demeanor changes after that incident, leading Paul to wonder what's really wrong with his wife.

With an approach of an isolated couple in the middle of nowhere, the possibilities for that happiness to go awry are several, although most of them have already been seen and the viewer can easily guess where the plot can go. However, at first glance, it is clear that Janiakhe prefers to take his time to establish the dynamics of the couple with a commendable naturalness and sensitivity, to the point that one believes that it is not really about actors but about any couple with a lot of complicity enjoying their honeymoon and adapting to a new step of your relationship. This decision is a great success, because in this way a much-needed bond of empathy is formed with the public, in which the spectators become familiar with them, knowing the details of both and witnessing their most fulfilling moments.

But even before the trigger kicks in, it becomes clear that no couple, no matter how happy they may appear to the naked eye, is perfect. There are discrepancies between them regarding sex, motherhood/fatherhood or jealousy, positions that any couple has discussed their points of view at some point, and hopefully they have reached a healthy agreement. However, it is also common for these discussions to be a momentary issue, that if the discussion does not escalate, the matter is suspended between the people and later it is intended to act normally. It's just that no matter how much you want to put those unresolved discussions aside, they have inevitably begun to chip away at the surface, and a little resentment gets embedded in the entire fabric.

With all those discrepancies on the table added to an isolated environment, they are the perfect breeding ground so that at the slightest external irruption everything begins to fall apart. Arriving at this situation, it is easy to understand the positions of both. To Paul, Bea has been acting strange ever since he found her alone in the woods without seeming to remember anything, but it's chilling when a person he knows as well as his wife overnight starts behaving very strangely. different, triggering all kinds of suspicions with more or less foundation. And on Bea's part, it can be seen that Paul is acting in a more controlling way, demanding things from her over which she has no power or that it is he who is making a bigger problem than it really is. These very different attitudes between the two make madness and paranoia settle in every corner of the house, resulting in a very oppressive environment. The conflict could be reduced to a psychologically charged thriller, but fortunately it goes one step further and has very powerful scenes of authentic terror, especially frombody horror consistent with everything that has been seen in the film , and of another genre that it is better not to comment much at the risk of spoilers .

Since Paul and Bea are almost the only characters in the film , all the weight falls on the pair of actors, so Rose Leslie and Harry Treadaway do an excellent job putting themselves at the service of the story and capturing all the phases with absolute conviction. of the couple From the first idealized moments in which the viewer becomes familiar with them and almost falls in love with them, to then move on to the first cracks that put them in check and the subsequent lack of control where nothing is what it seems and distrust is already so great that tarnishes everything without being able to reason. A painful deterioration where both actors give their all to the point of feeling very real.

If he had to raise an eyebrow at anything it would be his resolve. It does not come as a surprise, because throughout the footage they have been giving clues about what is happening, but in my personal opinion, a more closed explanation would not have hurt to give it the finishing touch. But despite that little final deflation, it is to be appreciated that the film manages to keep the viewer glued until the end with an idea that is so simple and at the same time so effective.