Royal Jelly – Film Review

Taken under the wing of a mysterious mentor, a teenage bee enthusiast named Aster (Elizabeth McCoy) discovers she’s being groomed as the next queen for a hive.

If you haven’t yet seen Nia DaCosta‘s brand new Candyman film that was released in theatres about a month ago, then you’re seriously missing out not only on one of the best horror films of the year but one of the best films of the year, period. It brilliantly reinvented the franchise and expanded upon the mythology of the bone-chilling title characters in ways that truly need to be seen to be believed.

Those that love DaCosta’s new film and the original are certainly plentiful, and it’s apparent to me that one of the biggest fans is director Sean Riley, because his new feature film Royal Jelly is an extremely strange copy-and-paste of Candyman just with a few things switched around in order to make it feel “original”. And, no, it’s not strange in a good way. Firstly, the protagonist of this film is a teenage girl rather than an adult journalist in the original Candyman. Plus there’s the fact that in Royal Jelly, there isn’t really a killer per se, but rather, a hive leader that does everything they can to put Aster under their spell to become the next queen for the hive.

Honestly though, as much of a ripoff of Candyman this is, it could’ve been a genuinely fun and amusing horror film – albeit one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Sadly, there is almost zero entertainment to be had while watching this movie. It’s ninety-three minutes long including credits and the vast majority of that time is spent on showing Aster’s life in school and at her home. She is absolutely obsessed with bees and talks about them practically all day long.

She draws pictures of hives and everybody in the school knows about her obsession to the point where she gets consistently bullied and harassed for it. And right when things start to get really bad, that’s when the hive leader comes in and tries to comfort her. In one of the only passable scenes in the film, Aster and the hive leader go to one of the bullies’ houses and proceed to egg it. It doesn’t take Aster long to fall under the hive leader’s spell.

You’d think that once she slowly but surely starts to become part of the hive, the film would start to become more vicious and entertaining – perhaps we’d see a few creative kills along the way, but no. Almost the entirety of the film is spent on showcasing the dynamic between Aster and the hive leader. I understand that there need to be scenes present that show us the bond that the two have, but don’t make it literally the entire movie.

By the time the final ten to fifteen minutes come around, you’ll be so burned out that you simply won’t care about what may happen next (spoiler alert: it’s nothing good). The acting isn’t the best, either. Elizabeth McCoy has acted in a handful of projects throughout the years, and while she definitely shows room for growth (especially with her emotional range), this just wasn’t a good performance from her. She does a good job at portraying the awkward side of this character, but when it comes to the other qualities, she falls short.

Tremaine, aka the hive leader, is portrayed by Fiona McQuinn who doesn’t really do anything special to make this character stand out as creepy or menacing. In Candyman, when we first see Tony Todd step into frame as the titular villain, we all get shivers down our spines because of how effortlessly eerie he is. And as soon as he opens his mouth to speak with those dark undertones, it’s hard not to feel unsettled. As Tremaine, McQuinn feels as though she is simply portraying an everyday person, sadly.

There’s nothing absolutely despicable about Royal Jelly but it’s most certainly not an entertaining movie and I can’t give it points for being an original effort because it’s essentially just a teenage version of Candyman with a few changes along the way. Fingers crossed that Sean Riley’s next directorial film will have a little bit sweeter to taste.