Program Note
After spending a long time in a coma due to an accident, Diana is still struggling with lingering aftereffects. In hopes of a full recovery, she enters the clinic of Dr. Trephine together with her caring husband, Homer. However, as the clinic’s unorthodox, intense treatments progress, Diana begins to sense that something isn’t quite right. She starts having hallucinations and feels as if she’s becoming someone else entirely. Most disturbing of all is Homer’s increasingly unfamiliar behavior. Could there be a secret hidden within the walls of this clinic that she doesn’t know about? Honey Bunch is the second feature by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, following Violation, screened at BIFAN in 2020. Their latest work ambitiously explores a new realm of 21st-century body horror, blending a meticulously reconstructed 1970s gothic horror aesthetic with a haunting romanticism reminiscent of Don’t Look Now (1973). Grace Glowicki, who also directed and starred in another BIFAN 2025 selection, Dead Lover, delivers an outstanding performance as Diana. (Jin PARK)