Two estranged childhood friends reunite for a cup of tea after not having spoken in many years. At their meeting, one of them presents a very unexpected proposition that will change their lives forever. A film by Guillem Morales, starring Naomie Harris, Dominic Allburn, and Natalie Dormer.

Heather Boxfield (Naomie Harris) is a housewife who lives a seemingly happy married life with her husband Simon (Dominic Allburn). However, after several years of trying to conceive a baby without success, tensions begin to rise. Heather grows increasingly frustrated by the wasps that keep appearing in her kitchen, suspecting there must be a nest nearby. Today, she manages to catch one in a glass. When she asks Simon if he has contacted someone about removing the wasp nest, she becomes annoyed to learn that he hasn’t and keeps postponing the call, saying he will schedule it for Monday.

Before Simon leaves for work, he tells Heather not to wait up for him because he has an important club meeting that night. He also reminds her to pick up the wine order for tomorrow evening, emphasizing how crucial it is for the dinner to go well for his business prospects. Later that evening, while alone in the house, Heather’s patience wears thin as she is disturbed by the buzzing sound of the wasp. She walks over to the glass containing the wasp, quickly flips it over, and crushes the insect with the bottom of the glass.

Suddenly, a childhood memory floods back to Heather as she recalls a time when young Heather (Leah Mondesir-Simmonds) and her friend, young Carla (Olivia Juno Cleverley), found a gravely wounded pigeon lying in the woods, presumably bitten by a fox. Young Heather was traumatized when young Carla smashed the dying bird with a rock, claiming she was putting it out of its misery.

The next day, after Simon leaves, Heather opens her MacBook and tries to contact Carla Jackson (Natalie Dormer) on Facebook, even though the screen shows they are not friends. However, she forcefully restrains herself from doing so and closes the lid of her MacBook. That evening, while Simon and his colleagues enjoy the dinner Heather has prepared, she becomes fixated on the smoke detector in the kitchen as she sees a wasp flying out of it. Slowly losing her mind, she grabs a step stool and attempts to remove the smoke detector cover by hand, only to be stung by a wasp. Furious, she grabs a hammer and starts smashing the ceiling. A wasp nest falls to the floor and breaks open, releasing hundreds of wasps into the kitchen. Simon witnesses Heather’s actions and quickly pulls her back into the dining room as the entire kitchen fills with wasps buzzing everywhere. After Simon’s colleagues leave, he lashes out at Heather, accusing her of trying to ruin his important dinner. He then storms out of the house as well.

Heather sends a message to Carla, who is now a pregnant cashier at a local supermarket. In her message, Heather asks to meet Carla at The Architect café tomorrow at 2 PM, promising that it will be worth her while, even though they haven’t been in touch for a long time. Initially, Carla isn’t interested in meeting; instead, she scrolls through her messages and responds to a guy named Logan Bryant, whom she met online. He has offered to help her with rent, but he seems to ghost her after she insists on meeting in person. That night, Carla receives another message from James End of Calton Road, requesting to meet her for two hours. She waits at the rendezvous point, where a mysterious man picks her up and then drops her off at the same location. Later that night, Carla sends a confirmation text to Heather, agreeing to meet her

At the café, Carla becomes bored and agitated as Heather starts rambling about her life and their childhood memories, specifically the time when Carla killed a pigeon with a rock. As they walk and talk — since Carla has to be at work in half an hour — Carla’s interest is piqued when Heather confesses that she has been pretending to be someone else and has exchanged emails with Simon, her own husband, which proves he has been cheating. Carla even compliments Heather for setting up a honey trap on her husband. Finally, Heather reveals the real reason she wanted to meet: she wants to hire Carla to kill Simon for £50,000.

Directed by Spanish filmmaker Guillem Morales from a screenplay by British playwright Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, The WASP is a gripping psychological thriller adapted from Malcolm’s 2015 stage play of the same name. The film features an outstanding cast, including Naomie Harris and Natalie Dormer, who deliver remarkable performances. With its intricate plot filled with unexpected twists and turns, The Wasp keeps the audience engaged from start to finish.

Morgan Lloyd Malcolm is a British playwright and screenwriter known for her acclaimed works, including the stage play The Wasp, which premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2015 and later in the West End. She has received recognition for her writing, winning an Olivier Award for her play Emilia.

Naomie Harris delivers a captivating performance as Heather Boxfield, a bitter housewife haunted by childhood trauma who endures a verbally abusive marriage. Natalie Dormer shines as Carla Jackson, also shaped by a troubled upbringing, which has forced her to adopt a strong and fierce persona to cope with the violence she faced.

I love how the narrative unfolds slowly, gradually revealing the connections between their pasts and present. While I’m usually not a fan of multiple flashbacks — often used by filmmakers to withhold critical information — this film makes it work effectively.

Even early on, viewers might start to piece together how Heather, Simon, and Carla are linked, especially since we never actually see the mysterious man named James that Carla goes out with. A clear hint is the absence of Simon’s photographs in the home he shares with Heather.

However, the film’s final act is so impressive and unexpected that it surpasses my predictions for how it would conclude. This film stands out as a masterclass in suspense thrillers, a genre we rarely see done so well these days.

The WASP premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 13 June 2024. It was theatrically released in the United States on 30 August, by Shout! Studios.