The Wasp proves that the eponymous wasp is an animal with a lot of thriller potential: In Guillem Morales’ film, the insect is locked in a jar right at the beginning and then crushed. But we get to know a second insect subspecies shortly afterwards: the spider-eating Tarantula Hawk Wasp (lat. Pepsis grossa) hangs framed in the main character’s hallway.
This wasp lays its eggs (a.) in tarantulas, which are then eaten alive from the inside by the insect offspring. Its sting causes (b.) three minutes of agony before the pain subsides without fatal outcome. With this deliberately scattered information, the successful Psycho-thriller two possible outcomes for his twist-and-turn story.
In the psychological thriller The Wasp, an insect becomes a metaphor for betrayal
Of course, The Wasp is not just about insects, but primarily about people. Unhappy people. Heather (Naomie Harris) has a wealthy, secure existence, but is unhappy with her childlessness and her husband. Carla (Natalie Dormer), on the other hand, lives at the other end of the social spectrum and with four, soon to be five children, a good-for-nothing husband and her supermarket job, she constantly has money problems, which even drive her into prostitution.
Heather and Carla were friends at school. At the time, Heather observed Carla killing an injured pigeon. Years later, this gave her the idea to approach her old friend with an astonishing offer: 50,000 pounds sterling (about 60,000 euros) for the murder of her husband. Carla can’t believe this bold request at first. But then the two start to plan together.
The Wasp owes the fact that the subsequent dark story with its ever-changing twists works above all to its two convincing leading actresses.
Successful duel: Game of Thrones vs. James Bond star
Natalie Dormer was no helpless princess in Game of Thrones as Margaery Tyrell in the dangerous intrigues at court. Naomie Harris played the equally savvy Moneypenny in the three James Bond films Skyfall, Spectre and No Time to Die. The two actresses build on the resonance of these iconic roles in The Wasp – by twisting it and play with our expectations.
Because even if Heather and Carla initially pull together for the planned murder, other old wounds lie dormant beneath the surface of The Wasp, which suddenly burst open and unexpectedly change the direction of the thrillerHarris’ snobby wealthy lady and Dormer’s weary lower-class mother could easily degenerate into caricatures here. But they don’t, because the two strong actresses ground the thriller’s increasingly unbelievable twists with their believable performances.
The Wasp – Trailer (English) HD
They draw us into a clever Interplay of sympathiesWe want their cooled childhood friendship to be rekindled when they pass the ball to each other during the murder planning and play out their reactions to “accidentally” discovered bodies and calls to the police in a fun role play. The thriller then becomes all the more painful because with each new twist it demands that we sometimes support one character and sometimes the other.
The Wasp is a powerful psychological thriller with a female focus
The wasp is an insect with feminine connotations and by no means one with a positive reputation. The Wasp builds on this metaphor with two very different women in a twist-filled thriller in which Men become irrelevant become.
Whether affairs or other marital inadequacies: Even Heather’s husband Simon (Dominic Allburn), the target of the murder plan, remains intentionally interchangeable. Which specific crimes on his part drive Heather to her plan are secondary. This is because the film is more concerned with the duel at its center over the Psyche of his female protagonists.
In most thrillers we are confronted with murderous men and sacrificed women. The Wasp turns this arrangement on its head by putting its sting in the flesh of two protagonists – the planners and instinctive creatures, Perpetrators and victims at the same time And that is what makes The Wasp a compelling thriller in the end. Literally.
More from the Fantasy Filmfest:
How and where you can watch The Wasp:
Pre-sales have already started: The Wasp will be shown at the Fantasy Filmfest in September 2024: the thriller was shown in Berlin on September 11, 2024; it will then be shown in Munich, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Hamburg on September 17, and in Frankfurt and Cologne on September 25.
The Wasp does not yet have a German release in cinemas, home cinemas or streaming.