Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.
Filmmakers love to scare audiences, especially when the antagonists are small, hairy, have eight legs, and attack their prey – in most cases, humans – with their jointed jaws. That is the case for director Sébastien Vanicek’s latest French thriller, “Infested,” which will be available to stream exclusively on Shudder this Friday.
The movie opens in Paris with our lead protagonist, Kaleb (Théo Christine), an exotic-animal-obsessed young man who collects lizards, scorpions, spiders, et al., who has just bought a mysterious Middle Eastern spider and brings it back to his apartment, who he shares with his sister Lila (Sofia Lesaffre). As brother and sister argue about the apartment, Lila wants to leave because of the painful memories it holds of their mother’s death, while Kaleb wants to stay because of his memories of them growing up together; our eight-legged freak escapes from its makeshift habitat and quickly breeds. Soon, the apartment block is overrun with thousands of arachnids, forcing the police to quarantine the building, allowing no one to escape.
I recently reviewed another spider movie called “Sting,” directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, which was, at times, cartoonishly entertaining, but “Infected” offers no humor whatsoever, taking itself ever so seriously. A few moments of levity wouldn’t have gone amiss, but it still works within the narrative it has created. Spiders erupt from drains, pipes, and air vents with no warning, giving the unlucky recipient, who happens to be standing nearby, no time to escape, incapable of stopping the hordes of creepy-crawlies from blanketing them. Humans, dogs, birds, nothing is exempt.
Director Sébastien Vanicek’s skilled direction ratchets up the tension throughout, as the characters are forced to outwit and outmaneuver the relentless arachnid onslaught. The film’s pacing is breakneck, with little respite for the audience as the body count steadily rises.
The ensemble cast delivers committed performances, conveying a genuine sense of terror and desperation as they fight for survival. Special mention must be made of the film’s impressive visual effects, which bring the spiders to life in chilling detail.
Vanicek’s perfectionism is evident as he meticulously crafts the film’s atmosphere and pacing. The relentless nature of the spider attacks keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, with moments of repose far and few between. “Infested” is a masterclass in suspenseful horror filmmaking. Vanicek’s command of the genre is evident in every frame, creating an experience that will have viewers checking under their seats.
Sam Raimi was so impressed with “Infested” that he offered Sébastien Vanicek the opportunity to direct the next installment in the “Evil Dead” franchise, following in the footsteps of Raimi himself, Fede Álvarez (“Evil Dead” – 2013) and Lee Cronin (“Evil Dead Rise” – 2023). Like Raimi, I, too, was impressed with “Infested” and eagerly await Vanicek’s take on the horror series.
Available to stream on Shudder Friday, April 26th
