An apartment building in Paris is overrun by murderous arachnids and unsubtle allegory in this fleet and efficient debut feature.
There are no fresh ideas in the French creepy-crawler “Infested,” yet this first feature from Sébastien Vanicek scurries forward with such pep and purpose that its shortcomings are easily forgivable. Add a handful of eager young actors, a sociopolitical slam and a claustrophobic location swarming with venomous spiders and you’ll be hunting for the DEET long before the credits roll.
Set in a low-income housing block in a Paris suburb, the action — and there’s plenty of it — is led by Kaleb (Théo Christine), an industrious youth who sells black-market sneakers and fusses over his illegal collection of small critters. His latest acquisition is a spider that, unbeknown to Kaleb, was smuggled from a Middle Eastern desert after rendering one of its captors agonizingly kaput. In less time than it takes to say “arachnophobia,” it will escape, reproduce like a bandit and send its deadly progeny scampering into every unsealed nook and cranny. Woe betide anyone not wearing a hoodie.
On one level, “Infested” is a well-worn, thoroughly efficient creature feature with sleek effects and pell-mell pacing. While not especially scary, the movie gains traction from a script (by Vanicek and Florent Bernard) that finds ways to add a smidgen of back story to its panicked characters. So as the building becomes a giant, web-draped cocoon, the rapid-fire squabbling among Kaleb, his sister (Lisa Nyarko) and his onetime best friend (Finnegan Oldfield) feels entirely authentic. As do the labyrinthine corridors, the constantly failing lighting (props to Alexandre Jamin’s stuttering photography) and Kaleb’s kindhearted concern for his neighbors.
A police lockdown cues social commentary that, while glaringly obvious, is also apt in a movie whose French title translates as “vermin” and whose gun-and-gas-toting authorities may have their own ideas about the term’s definition.
Infested
Not Rated. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. Watch on Shudder.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
