Sometimes I like to imagine what filmmakers said during their pitch to people they wanted to make the movie with. Vermines is a perfect and fitting example of one of those times. A French title, with the English verbiage of Infested 2024, is the one you’ve been waiting for if creature features are a realm you like to wallow in. Great spider horror movies are in high demand. Some of the best movies to watch with insects are Arachnophobia, Eight-Legged Freaks The Giant Spider. But there hasn’t been a great creature feature involving spiders in some years.
The pitch for Infested would go something like this: Focus on the lucrative market for insects. Not just for food but as pets and as food for pets. Some men working for a business that sells spiders and insects uncover a new species of arachnid while spraying to evict some underground spiders. But these are no ordinary spiders. They are fast, deadly, and in extremely large numbers.
Vermines is a movie with creepy crawlies
Now, imagine the biggest fear people have of spiders. As an Australian, I can vouch that if I found a spider in my shoe, it would be scary. Enter Kaleb, a recently released criminal from a local jail, and a massive bug enthusiast. His bedroom is littered with tanks and heat lamps, spiders, snakes, and critters. His side hustle is selling designer shoes that he stores in an underground parking garage. Can you see where this is going?
Infested 2024 starts by drenching you in anticipation. Not only from the opening scenes where tiny spiders in large numbers are seen being trapped inside containers ready to sell, but also watching as Kaleb casually walks into a pawn shop and buys one of the containers, we know it’s from the chaos of the desert site.
It’s the type of horror movie that taps into your fear center by ensuring the audience knows where the spiders are at all times, but the people trapped inside this world do not. The danger of watching Kaleb interact with his newest acquisition, with the understanding that he has no idea how dangerous this spider is, made my nerves crumble. The first quarter of Vermines is exceptionally great.
The narrative is way above par when compared to many other movies in the horror movie arena. Kaleb lives with his sister in their parents’ apartment. There is enough drama between the siblings to give plausibility to much of the decision-making. The pair has good connections with friends in the building, and these extended side characters create solid opportunities to invest in when the inevitable kill count starts to climb.
“Something that kills that fast is medievil.”
Quote from the French title Vermines (Infested 2024)
Infested travels along for quite some time, revelling in the horror movie tropes. There are spiders seen scampering on walls in the background; we see them hiding in drainpipes, vicariously close to the hustle and bustle of the apartment complex day to day. In small but frequently seen increasing numbers, there was plenty of nervous squirming on my part. Because spiders are so great at inducing fear, I’ve made sure to include more than one image of the creepy crawlies here.
However, it’s not all glowing praise despite an overwhelming enthusiasm for recommending Infested. What the filmmaker built up in the beginning followed genetic lines, though executed well. For the second half, the Infested movie flips a coin and lands on a large-scale epidemic. As the spiders grew in size, the tension was stripped right back.
The bigger they got, the less scary they were. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of its own special effects not being accommodating enough to be visually effective. Infected also suffers from many well-meaning plot holes that weaken the structure of its foundation. Having the spiders become stagnant in direct bright lights caused continuity issues. The finale for Infested highlighted the need for this gimmick, giving me a reason to decide to overlook this flaw. The unpredictable final quarter has enough volatility to carry the ending of Infested Home.
Infested is a great French creature feature. The title will appear on Shudder on April 26th, 2024. One of the many production companies associated with Vermines is Netflix, so perhaps it will drop on that streaming platform sometime in the future.
Infested 2024 is rated
4 When in doubt, burn it down out of 5
Infested Movie Trailer
Vermines
Director: Sébastien Vaniček
Date Created: 2023-12-27 19:20
4
Pros
- Will make you itchy
- The opening scene is specular
- Plays into the fear of spiders in shoes
Cons
- The final quarter spiders need work
