Synopsis
After a devastating accident leaves her memory fractured, Diana retreats with her husband to a secluded experimental wellness clinic. But as unsettling visions and strange encounters begin to blur the line between recovery and paranoia, she starts to question whether the people around her are really trying to help at all.
Directed and Written by Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer
Starring Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie and Jason Isaacs
Released in North America on Shudder.
Review
There’s something undeniably intriguing about Honey Bunch. Experimental therapy, fractured memories, soulmate-level devotion wrapped up in uncomfortable science-fiction undertones? It’s the kind of premise that instantly grabs your attention and practically dares you not to overthink it afterwards.
And honestly, for a while, it really works.
Grace Glowicki stars as Diana, a woman undergoing an unusual form of therapy after a traumatic accident, with Ben Petrie playing her intensely devoted husband at her side. The film keeps us closely aligned with Diana’s perspective as she slowly begins piecing together what’s happening around her, and that uncertainty creates a genuinely effective sense of unease early on. We discover information at the same pace she does, constantly trying to work out whether this process is helping her, manipulating her, or something far stranger in between.
But somewhere along the line, Honey Bunch starts to feel strangely slippery. Not in an intentional dreamlike way — more in a “wait… what exactly are the rules here?” kind of way.
There’s an oddly dated quality to the film that I still can’t fully articulate. Tonally, it feels like something preserved from a completely different filmmaking era and quietly released into the 2025 festival circuit without adjusting itself to modern storytelling rhythms. That’s not necessarily a criticism in itself, but combined with the film’s increasingly abstract emotional logic, it left me feeling disconnected more often than immersed.
The biggest issue for me was the lack of consistency surrounding the therapy itself. We’re introduced to other patients and parallel cases throughout the film, but their experiences vary so wildly that it becomes difficult to understand what the film is actually trying to say about the process. And while I’m certainly not here to debate the science of this fictional therapy, even heightened movie-science needs some kind of internal logic to anchor the emotional stakes.
The flashbacks add to that feeling too. Rather than deepening the emotional core of the story, many of them feel tonally out of sync with the rest of the film, almost as though they belong to an entirely different version of Honey Bunch altogether.
What kept me engaged though, was the cast.
Jason Isaacs is excellent in a supporting role, bringing genuine warmth, urgency and sacrifice to a character who could easily have become little more than exposition delivery. He gives the story an emotional grounding that it occasionally struggles to provide elsewhere.
And then there’s Glowicki and Petrie together, which is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the whole film. They feel intellectually matched in a way that’s undeniably compelling, but watching them interact is often more exhausting than romantic. Like witnessing two highly analytical people slowly dissect their relationship in real time until there’s nothing left of it. There’s a toxicity to their dynamic that feels completely intentional, and part of me suspects the film is designed to feel emotionally alienating in exactly this way. If that’s the case, it certainly commits to the bit.
The problem is that I never quite found my way into it emotionally. I spent so much time trying to reconcile the inconsistencies in tone, structure and world-building that I struggled to fully connect with what the film was asking me to feel.
And yet… I can’t say I disliked it.
There’s still something compelling about Honey Bunch, particularly in the way it gradually loops back around on itself by the end. It’s thoughtful, strange and clearly made with intention, even if I found the execution more frustrating than satisfying. Ultimately, I think this particular style of storytelling — and performance — simply wasn’t my cup of tea, though I can absolutely see it resonating far more strongly with the right audience.
Honey Bunch is a fascinating near-miss: a film filled with ideas I admired, even while I struggled to fully enjoy the experience of watching it.
What you should do
If you're in for a movie that gets your moral compass thinking, then this is probably right up your alley. Somehow though, I don't think it's a major issue that it isn't available in many regions.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
In this instance, I'm all good. The movie can keep everything.
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