Directed by:
Sébastien VaničekCinematography:
Alexandre JaminComposer:
Douglas CavannaCast:
Théo Christine, Jérôme Niel, Finnegan Oldfield, Sofia Lesaffre, Lisa Nyarko, Marie-Philomène Nga, Mahamadou Sangaré, Abdellah Moundy, Emmanuel Bonami (more)Plots(1)
Kaleb, a lonely man whose greatest passion are exotic animals, returns home with a mysterious spider and it escapes, causing an infestation that plunges the neighborhood into a state of absolute hysteria and chaos. Before long, the locals are placed under quarantine, and are forced to live with a plague of arachnids that become more and more deadly as time goes by. (Sitges Film Festival)
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Reviews (12)
Objectively a strong 4*, but I can't help but go for a full score, as we haven’t seen a quality movie with spiders for 20 years, this is such a terribly intense, yet underrated and (for some reason??) forgotten genre that every addition is welcomed with open arms by all fans. And Sebastien Vaniček has done a truly incredible job of it, because Infested is top shit in every way, from the expensive visuals to the never-ending suspense to the excellent five leads, who can act and can be scared, I fully bought their emotions. The looks of the spiders is disgusting and arachnophobes can forget about the film as this is really quite unpleasant and can terrify even the most hardened. I also have to praise the certain "overkill" of the whole concept of evolving spiders as it opens the door to endless variety in terms of spider evolution in a few hours, so we get all the different sized creatures at once, which is a big plus. The film has momentum, a solid pace, and expensive visuals – what more could you ask for? Not to just praise, I also have to critically say that the film has quite a few flaws: sometimes people act stupid, I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get more heart-attack inducing scenes, where, for example, the spiders would have crawled more on the characters and we as viewers could have enjoyed more physical disgust on ourselves and felt them behind the screen, and it's also a great pity that the finale doesn't actually explain the whole thing and showing us how the situation was resolved. However, due to the absolute drought in this (sub)genre, this is a full five out of the park and I absolutely cannot understand why more films with spiders aren't made, as when a solid budget is added to the mix, half the battle is won and there's always a fanbase for this type of movies. Anyone who doesn't see spiders everywhere they go for a few days after this film probably didn't watch it right and should repeat the process with headphones and a darkened room. Great.
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Sébastien Vaniček and his instant ticket to the A-Horror League. I'm gonna go give out prizes, because this is where history is made. So Vaniček made a dream debut (right on the lines of the recent successful debutants like Robert Eggers, Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, Zach Cregger), the best spider horror film of all time (it's quite funny that the previous king is already 30 years, Arachnophobia), kicked off this year's French wave and at the same time made the best horror film of the year – no one could ask for a better way to start. Whether Infested will be dethroned by the new Alien or Nosferatu at the end of the year is another matter, but until then it can enjoy the pedestal merrily. And now for the film. After a long time, I experienced very uncomfortable feelings with horror, and since ghosts and demons don't do anything to me, spiders as a real evil definitely had an effect. The housing estates of the French ghetto evokes an interesting atmosphere in itself, you don’t get to really form much of a relationship with the characters but that didn't bother me. The craftsmanship is excellent and once it gets going, it really is a spider atmospheric hell crammed with jump-scares like Sam Raimi's Drag me to Hell, and I twitched along decently (I also praise the aptly chosen musical score!). Admittedly, it got more intense as the spiders got smaller, but even the big ones had something going for them – that's where the CGI came in handy. It's a bit marred by the ending, I was expecting a bigger carnage, the mass battle spiders vs cops was over too quickly for my taste, and the whole thing ends quite hastily – I could have easily managed 20 minutes more – but these are minor flaws in the beauty of a film that is born once every three decades. Anyone who doesn't appreciate that is an arrogant scumbag and an enemy of the state and me. 9/10.
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Vermines is a bit like Arachnophobia in the French way. You get rather unconventional and not very likeable characters, a grimy slum setting and a very limited amount of humour, but you also get solid action, very indiscriminate spider terror and a few scenes that will make you uncomfortable in your seat. The film uses real creatures in many scenes, and when it goes into computer-generated effects, it's not noticeable at all, so the realistic visuals do a lot for the viewer's effect. There probably aren't that many good spider horror movies historically, but this one can easily count among them.
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The only thing worse than finding a spider in your apartment is losing a spider in your apartment. Just such an event in the film results in the infestation of a whole apartment building with venomous fiddlebacks (or whatever they were) from the basement to the attic, where the spiders multiply at a startling rate, each time growing significantly larger than their antecedents, in which case the film flirts a bit with science fiction at the end. The realistic setting of an apartment building in a social housing estate and the fresh, energetic approach of the young filmmaker are exactly what the arachno-horror genre need. After the long exposition with the introduction of the characters, the action gains proper intensity, which it constantly escalates so that some scenes border on being unbearable, especially for people who are repelled by spiders. Absolutely everyone will squirm in their seats. Vermin is the best spider horror movie since Arachnophobia from 1990.
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What an intense ride. I haven't squirmed in my seat like that in a long time. Vermines is an instant classic, right up there with Arachnophobia in the spider horror subgenre. The filmmakers nailed the perfect blend of practical effects, CGI, and live spiders, making it incredibly effective. If you have a severe fear of spiders, this film will leave you physically unsettled. I never expected something like this to come out of France, and even more surprising, it's a debut. I'm looking forward to seeing more from Vaniček in the future.
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