Back in 2018 I wrote and published a novel called S.P.I.D.A.R. and it was set in the remote (and real life) town of Whittier, Alaska. The town is perfect for horror because most of the residents live in one gigantic building that was originally some kind of Army barracks, but now houses this town. Inside is everything they need like a school, a small grocery store, and a police station. The town is fascinating, but in my novel, it is beset by a thousands upon thousands of bio-engineered and bio-mechanical spiders from a nearby island that get inside people's heads, lay eggs, control them, and then the eggs burst out of them as spiders with a mean streak. They can adapt fast, reproduce fast, and change their nature, their size with each generation.
I say this because I just wanted this amazing French film called Infested, and there is a lot of parallel thinking happening here between this movie and my novel. No, I do not think anyone stole my idea. Not at all, this movie is very different and much more intense in a lot of ways, and it is a great social commentary to boot. It's an easy concept to scare people - deadly spiders trap people in a building, chaos ensues.
Terrifying Eight-Legged Monsters
The movie starts in the desert in a Middle Eastern country. Men are searching for desert spiders to sell on the black market. After they try to use poison on a spider hole, they soon discover that these spiders are hard to kill, really fast, and very, very deadly. One of their own is bitten and has to be finished off by his friend wielding a machete.
Then we get to meet Kaleb. He lives in a very unique and interesting housing development in a multicultural suburb outside of Paris. He sells sneakers to make money and does a number of other hustles, but he is basically a good kid. The problem is he has a knack for liking unique bugs, insects and, of course, arachnids. In the back room of a convenience store, where he is selling a few things and looking for some interesting product, he finds a spider for sale. You can probably guess what kind of spider and where it came from.
The movie ends up being an allegory for xenopbobia as we get to know the others in the housing development. Most of them are foreigners and those who are not, and still live in the building, mistrust all of them on sight. See, people also feel the same about spiders.
Of course, the spider he grabs gets out. It begins to reproduce rapidly and each new generation grows in size to match the threats against it. While they do not crawl into the heads of their victims and control them, they are not opposed to crawling inside their heads to lay more eggs once they are dead.
A Terrifying Tale to Make Your Skin Crawl
If you want a terrific horror tale and to inform the political and social commentary, well Infested is still a great watch. I am a hard-bitten cynic of horror movies. I have watched so many of the films that had huge buzz this year, and not one has made me jump. I enjoyed them, overall, but did they really scare me? Probably not.
Infested made me jump at least three times.
I find that some of the best horror these days come from other countries. I absolutely loved the powerfully disturbing and jump-scare-inducing When Evil Lurks that came out last year. A movie that telegraphed exactly what the jumpscare was, where it could come from, and still managed to make me jump three fee out of my seat when it happened.
The characters in Infested are relatable, believable, and you root for them. As things get worse, the spiders get progressively bigger and more terrifying. The scene where our group has to walk through a web and spider-infested hallway and the only thing keeping the eight-legged bastards in check is the lights overhead, will have you on the edge of your seat.
Sébastien Vaniček is the man who directed and co-wrote this horror gem. It starts the remarkable Théo Christine as Kaleb. They budget for this I bet was a fraction of what an American horror film with a similar theme would be, but the special effects, the story, the direction and the acting are all top notch and you WILL feel like things are crawling on you while you watch this.
Conclusion: Be Sure to Check Out Infested
Infested is in French and you have to read the subtitles. I am unaware of a dubbed version, but come on, there is a lot of action here and anyone can read for a little bit. In fact, I can attest you can look away, miss a few lines, and still know what's happening. The movie is now on Shudder and if you are a horror fan and not subscribed to Shudder, I don't know what you're doing with your life.
Infested is a great time, and an excellent film and one of my favorite horror movies of 2024.
Be sure to visit my Amazon bookstore for all of my horror tales in all formats whether they have creepy crawlies or not. Also, be sure to pre-order my newest novel Newcomers for Kindle right now!
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