Often topping the list of most common phobias isn’t, as you might expect, the fear of common lists of phobias, but arachnophobia – the fear of spiders.

There’s something about those eight-legged critters that can send shivers down the spine, causing anyone with a fear of them some real discomfort. You probably have a designated spider catcher in your home, who even isn’t keen on themselves, but is forced to be rid of any that may find their way into your abode regardless.

If they make you feel this way - spiders that is, not the designated catcher - then this creepy horror is probably not for you.

Living in Southern Brooklyn in an old rundown building is Charlotte (Alyla Browne), with her mum Heather (Penelope Mitchell) and her partner Ethan (Ryan Corr), who have just had a child of their own.

Ethan is a budding artist, of comics, but is currently also the building supervisor to bring some money in. And due to the buildings age and poor condition, he’s kept pretty busy.

One day, whilst exploring through the vents into other apartments, Charlotte comes across a cute, tiny spider and decides to keep it for a while, even giving it a name – Sting.

Little does she know that Sting is no ordinary spider, having arrived from outer space in a storm. Sting also happens to have quite an appetite too, with one particular craving, that of human flesh.

Although set in New York, this film was entirely shot in Sydney, Australia, a country famed for its arachnids.

Australian writer and director Kiah Roache-Turner has created a homage to the low budget horror films of the eighties. Sting is a pleasing throwback to high concept features, that did exactly what they said on the tin. It’s a film about a deadly spider, and that’s all you need to know.

It has a faint whiff of John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing, with the notion of a monster on the loose in a restricted area, but instead of a science base in the Antarctic, it’s a dilapidated apartment building in New York, where the action never leaves the interior locale. This adds to the sense of panic in an enclosed space, especially as the vents make every part of the building accessible for the eight-legged arrival, giving it a pleasing claustrophobic feel and foreboding atmosphere.

It falls into that comfortable 90 minutes in length too, so Sting never outstays its welcome. However, there is a little padding which slows things down, mainly with the relationship between Charlotte and Ethan; although the film needs some emotional depth to it, Roache-Turner focuses a little too much time into developing it, at what often feels like the expense of the rest of the film, depriving audiences of further jump scares, which after all, is the main reason to watch a film like this in the first place.

And although it doesn’t have a Hollywood budget, which is certainly obvious from the lack of any names involved in the cast, the effects still manage to both impress and indeed pull off a number of those necessary jump scares.

It’s a film that could have possibly gone further, certainly turning the horror aspect up a notch or two would have been nice for added bite, but as it stands, it’s a great stab at a modern b-movie, with more than its fair share of creepy crawly thrills.