The issue of love and the trust and truth that go with it come to the fore in the sci-fi thriller THE HONEYMOON PHASE, featured as part of the Frightfest ‘Digital Virtual Edition’ in August 2020 due to lockdown and was regarded as one of the stand outs of the festival by those who watched it.
Recruited as part of an elaborate initiative known simply as THE MILLENNIUM PROJECT, broke young lovers Tom Jacobs (Jim Schubin) and Eve Jacobs (Chloe Carroll) are desperate for cash and an incentive of $50,000 seems promising if they can get through a month of analysis by the people behind the project to get a greater understanding of why relationships go through the things that they do.
Given the opportunity to reside in a smart home, with cameras tracking their every move coupled with virtual scientists available to help with their every concern, Tom and Eve begin to discover there is a lot more to their dynamic both as individuals and as a couple, but before long it is clear that there is a darker element in place that threatens to expose their very honesty….
THE HONEYMOON PHASE examines the real issues that emerge through interpersonal conflict in the dynamic of a relationship, with two key characters starting out as loved-up obsessives but as they discover very quickly, the true honesty and reality of their seemingly-perfect match begins to unravel between them, despite the promise of a financial sweetener and a luxurious place in which to explore their first steps as a couple.
Schubin and Carroll, who is married in real life to the director of the film, are game for good performances in the lead roles and the film does reflect a similar dark, subversive quality that we encountered with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner three decades earlier in THE WAR OF THE ROSES and the more recent Leonard DiCaprio / Kate Winslet teaming REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. First and foremost a dark sci-fi noir, it is a little more layered than some similar films of its’ ilk and actually does have a little more crossover appeal to a broader audience beyond the Frightfest crowd where it made its’ initial mark in the UK.
As with classic films like THE TERMINATOR and WESTWORLD, humanity thrives on genetic and natural evolution and the answer is seldom found in the virtue of technology. THE HONEYMOON PHASE is a classic cautionary tale of misconception and misunderstanding – and one that all lovers of all ages would do well to heed in order to protect their own futures.
