Infested (Sébastien Vaniček, 2023)
What's the opposite of itsy bitsy?
Outside of the horror genre, one of my favorite categories of film is French realism (see directors such as Olivier Assayas and Abdellatif Kechiche), so of course my interest was piqued when I heard that Infested (Vermines in its native tongue) was a French realist horror movie.
Mais oui, you bet I’m in!
Just how much a film that involves a plague of giant deadly spiders can claim to be “realistic” is up for dispute, but the film does indeed possess a mostly objective and observational gaze familiar to fans of French realism cinema, so close enough.
The story follows Kaleb, a high-rise apartment-dweller with a fondness for unorthodox pets, who purchases a new exotic spider to add to his collection. But not sooner than he gets it home, it escapes the laughably insecure confines of the cardboard shoe box that was its temporary home, and inevitably causes absolute chaos resulting in a bunch of dead humans. You know the drill.
For the arachnophobias in the audience, if that sounds bad then brace yourself for a hell of a lot worse. Turns out the killer spider was heavily pregnant and that its offspring can in turn reproduce extraordinarily quickly. Oh, and they also grow surprisingly large. Like huge, giant spiders that are literally bigger than your head. Yeah.
Of course, we’ve already had a hint of what this particular breed of spider is capable of in a knockabout opening sequence following a bunch of trappers/poaches as they come up against and capture said spider and its kin. That scene does a great job of setting up the tone of the rest of the film, although the terror inflicted by the spider in the expanse of a Middle Eastern desert is far worse in the claustrophobic confines of a tower block.
Infested is a fantastic gem of an animal-centered horror movie and an utterly fun ride. Given the rundown apartment building setting, there is a diverse variety of lively characters that are all well-drawn and allow the story to bounce around and progress as some apartments are overrun sooner than others — all of which continually ramps up the suspense, which is of course the film’s prime source of horror. We already know there are deadly spiders everywhere — it’s the how and when they’ll strike that keeps us perched on the edge of our seats.
The frequent cutting between different characters in the same building (and seeing how they relate and interact) allows for moments of socio-political awareness that, while not the film’s focus, elevate the film by grounding it firmly in reality as well as providing a texture and depth which help sell the film’s more outrageousness elements (the whole lethal spider infestation thing).
Throughout, there are some wonderfully executed set pieces that are worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as some of Spielberg’s most iconic. It’s gleefully entertaining fun.
Not in a long while has a horror film provoked such squeals from me, nor have I felt so compelled, so frequently, to yell in vain at the screen. Infested is a delightfully creepy crawly film that will surely get under your skin, and both unsettle and enthrall you in equal measure.