I'm not one of those crazy people who say that spiders are our friends. I hate them. I say squash them, stomp them, crush the ugly little buggers. If you're also not a fan of the eight-legged beasties, think twice before watching French creature feature Infested, which is guaranteed nightmare fuel for arachnophobes.
The film stars Théo Christine as Kaleb, who collects creepy crawlies; unfortunately, his latest acquisition, a rare African spider, quickly escapes and gives birth to hundreds of more spiders, which then rapidly grow and multiply. Pretty soon, the rundown apartment building where Kaleb lives is over-run by deadly arachnids and placed under quarantine, with Kaleb and his friends trapped inside.
The plot for Infested is fairly routine for the genre, but it does what is required of it, namely set up the film for plenty of edge-of-the-seat moments designed to make the viewer feel as uneasy as possible. Director Sébastien Vanicek delivers maximum terror, combining real spiders and impressive CGI for memorable set-pieces that will have those brave enough to watch squirming in their seats.
Admittedly, Infested does run out of steam a little in the final act when the cops show up and matters get seriously out of hand, and one character's decision to open a door and release the spiders is highly questionable, but given what has gone before I am willing to cut the film a bit of slack: it's not often that a horror film makes me feel so uncomfortable.
The film stars Théo Christine as Kaleb, who collects creepy crawlies; unfortunately, his latest acquisition, a rare African spider, quickly escapes and gives birth to hundreds of more spiders, which then rapidly grow and multiply. Pretty soon, the rundown apartment building where Kaleb lives is over-run by deadly arachnids and placed under quarantine, with Kaleb and his friends trapped inside.
The plot for Infested is fairly routine for the genre, but it does what is required of it, namely set up the film for plenty of edge-of-the-seat moments designed to make the viewer feel as uneasy as possible. Director Sébastien Vanicek delivers maximum terror, combining real spiders and impressive CGI for memorable set-pieces that will have those brave enough to watch squirming in their seats.
Admittedly, Infested does run out of steam a little in the final act when the cops show up and matters get seriously out of hand, and one character's decision to open a door and release the spiders is highly questionable, but given what has gone before I am willing to cut the film a bit of slack: it's not often that a horror film makes me feel so uncomfortable.