Panic Fest 2024: ‘Infested’ Movie Review: This Terrifying Skin-Crawler Isn’t So Easy To Shake
Photo from Shudder
From Jeff Nelson
Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek’s Infested triumphs in making a legitimately terrifying arachnid movie in a sea of schlocky monster flicks that are all too easy to forget. This one taps into arachnophobia on a primal level, leaving the sub-genre’s all-too-frequent comedy behind in favor of a darker tone. The final result will have you involuntarily kicking your legs and hoping never to see another spider again.
Kaleb (Théo Christine) lives in a rundown French apartment with his sister, Manon (Lisa Nyarko). Since their mother’s death, she wants to sell the apartment to pursue a new future, while he doesn’t want to leave the memories behind. Kaleb sells high-end sneakers out of a storage unit to make ends meet, adopting an exotic spider he calls Rihanna in the process. After it causes a particularly horrendous death in the apartment, the police quarantine the residents inside the building, forcing them to fight for their survival against an infestation of rapidly growing spiders.
The two siblings are the dramatic center of Infested, as their unaddressed grief bubbles to the surface amid their fight to avoid lethal spiders. However, they aren’t alone – tensions with fellow residents and close friends come to a head. The emotional beats land with mixed success, although we grow to care for these characters, hoping to see them make it out of the apartment unscathed. Kaleb’s decision to add Rihanna to his insect wall is responsible for the unfolding carnage, but the group’s determination to face their greatest fears is commendable.
Vanicek doesn’t shy away from foreshadowing when it comes to his set pieces, but they’re no less effective. He generates immense tension within the buildup, making us wince at the impending chaos. Infested runs at its most disturbing when it taps into the fear that we can relate to, burrowing spiders in the places we least suspect in everyday life. There are diminishing returns on the terror as the insects grow to absurd sizes, leading to a big-scale finale that loses the creep factor and moves into monster territory. Character motivations don’t entirely make sense either, leaving an unsatisfactory ending.
The typical spider movie would have the audience questioning why the residents don’t just leave the building, but in this case, it’s easily answered by the quarantine situation. Vanicek transforms the concept of home into a claustrophobic space crawling with deadly arachnids. One particular set piece involving a narrow hallway is sure to haunt my nightmares for years to come.
Infested is as terrifying as a spider movie could ever hope to be. Vanicek sets himself as a filmmaker to watch with an impressively taut debut. He milks every ounce of tension out of this arachnid vehicle that doesn’t entirely neglect its emotional core involving characters we actually want to see make it out alive. If you see any spider flick this year, make it Infested.
Rating: 3.5/5
Infested played at Panic Fest 2024 on April 10th, 2024, before it streams on Shudder starting April 26th, 2024.
