Reviews
‘Infested’ Review – One of the Best Spiders Attack Horror Movies in Years
It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a tried and true, serious-in-tone creature feature, or at least one in which the creature in question is a real-world animal and not a fictitious monster. This sub-genre often finds its roots planted firmly in horror comedy or, intentionally or not, camp. So it’s refreshing that Infested (formerly titled Vermin), Sébastien Vaniček‘s feature directorial debut, takes a deathly serious approach to the material. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with these spiders, but there’s nothing funny about them.
30-year-old Kaleb (Théo Christine) is a small-time grifter with a passion for small critters. His hopes of opening a reptile zoo with his friend Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield) were squashed years ago when an argument drove the two friends apart. Kaleb makes up for his lost dream by lining the walls of his room with vivariums filled with creepy-crawlies. He purchases an exotic spider for sale in the back office of his friend’s shop, not knowing that it is extremely aggressive and venomous. Shortly after bringing it home, the spider escapes. Kaleb barricades his room in the hopes of containing it, intending to look for it later, but the photosensitive arachnid has a mind of its own and quickly wreaks havoc in the building
Make no mistake: this isn’t just one spider loosed in an apartment complex. This spider, lovingly named Rihanna by Kaleb, mates rapidly (the timeline for the film is a day, maybe two), and its offspring grow to 10 times the size of their parents. This happens multiple times over the course of the film, ensuring that the stakes escalate rapidly and adds more variety to the set pieces. One particular sequence sees our characters forced to slowly make their way to the end of a dark hallway lined with spiders before the timer on the light switch runs out and its easily the highlight of the film.
A big fear walking into Infested was that it was going to be chock-full of CGI spiders (the days of Arachnophobia are long gone). Thankfully, Vaniček and his team have employed practical spiders when they are able, using CGI to enhance the scenes that involve hordes of them. In the early stages of the takeover, Vaniček and cinematographer Alexandre Jamin keep the spiders out of focus in the background behind unsuspecting characters, masking what could presumably be dodgy effects work. The really big spiders that populate the third act are fully computer-generated and look the most cartoonish, especially when seen under bright light, but a plot point that sees the local authorities shut off the power to the building ensures that the more lackluster effects are hidden behind dim lighting.
Vaniček and his co-writer Florent Bernard keep things moving at a brisk pace, but falter in the climax, where they try to cram in a few too many emotional resolutions between characters. Add in a dash of ACAB social commentary, and the film nearly buckles under the pressure of everything it’s trying to do. That this is all happening in a climactic parking garage face-off against the spiders leaves little room for any of it to resonate. It’s not a movie-killer, but it does detract from the experience. More successful are the early, if brief, glimpses into the lives of the tenants, whose early sense of community quickly turns sour once the arachnids begin to take over.
Infested may not fully stick the landing when it comes to the emotional beats, but the journey there is more than worth the watch. Full of moments that will get under your skin (I kicked my legs up more than a few times in my screening), Vaniček has crafted what is possibly the best “when spiders attack” movie in over 30 years, and that is no small feat. Infested, for lack of a better phrase, has plenty of bite.
Infested is now streaming on Shudder.
Editor’s Note: This Fantastic Fest review was originally published on September 24, 2023.
The problem with parodies is that there’s an extremely fine line between precise mockery and simply creating a genuine example of what was being made fun of in the first place. That’s why the best kind of cinematic satire comes from a place of love, as unironic appreciation for the material being parodied means that you’re still left with something fun to watch even when the humor fails.
I was reminded of this while watching I Hate Found Footage, the latest horror comedy by Michael Rock, director of the Tahoe Joe trilogy and founding member of Horror Dadz Productions. This cheekily titled parody has just been released on Found TV as one of the budding streamer’s first exclusive productions, and while I commend the folks at FTV for enlisting a found footage veteran to help popularize their fan-funded platform, the ensuing product might just be a little too accurate for its own good.
Taking inspiration from classic Muppets spoofs as well as a lifetime of experience with some of the best and worst that found footage movies have to offer, I Hate Found Footage may not be the very first comedy to poke fun at the FF genre, but it’s certainly the first one to feature colorful puppets as the protagonists.
In this decidedly meta experience, we follow Eddie Blake and Michael Rock himself as Ollie and Filbert – a duo of talkative hand puppets who embark on a quest to shoot a no-budget found footage movie in the middle of the Nevada wilderness. Unfortunately for the budding filmmakers, their cameras end up picking up much more than they bargained for when their impromptu monster movie accidentally puts them in the path of a masked gang of ritualistic murderers.
What follows is a self-conscious comedy of errors poking fun at all of the most hated and some of the most beloved tropes that the found footage genre has to offer. Ollie and Filbert frequently interrupt their terrifying POV misadventure with jabs at common faux pas like their own inability to stop filming even under risk of death, as well as multiple instances of puppet-based physical humor.
In general, this is far from a bad premise. The kid-friendly puppetry might be a bit jarring during the first few minutes as you get used to seeing this playful duo interact with the gritty real world, but there’s an undeniable charm to the way that these unorthodox characters record ironic versions of the familiar exposition dumps and ominous testimonials that we’re so used to seeing in “serious” found footage flicks.
Unfortunately, Rock is so dedicated to recreating an authentically terrible found footage production that the finished film often feels more like a failed attempt at an earnest project than an enjoyable parody. Sure, the copious amount of jokes and the fact that our leads are played by fluffy masses of felt should indicate that the film isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but pointing out how amateur found footage productions suffer from long stretches of dead air and unnecessary build-up is only funny until the movie becomes the very thing it’s supposed to be criticizing.
I get that having Ollie and Filbert’s ill-advised cinematic endeavor be a laughably bad movie is itself part of the joke, but unlike similar genre parodies in the vein of Ed Wood or even stuff like Sharknado and Velocipastor, which benefit from the fun parts of traditionally “bad” horror filmmaking, I Hate Found Footage has to contend with the fact that poorly-made found footage tends to be more boring than ridiculous.
That’s not to say that there’s no enjoyment to be found here, as I especially appreciate absurdist jokes like when the characters encounter the murdered “corpse” of another hand-puppet, and his full skeleton only consists of a bloodied arm. Or even the ridiculous scene where the duo attempts to simulate a jump scare for their monster movie using embarrassing levels of puppet-on-puppet effects work. But it’s a shame that these elements are shackled to excruciatingly long, though admittedly beautiful, shots of the Nevada setting.
That being said, regardless of certain stilted/unfunny line deliveries and the painfully slow build-up that doesn’t really lead to a horrific finale, Rock is still a skilled enough filmmaker to know that this kind of comedic experience works best in short bursts. That’s why the hour-long runtime comes as a blessing even if it also serves as an example of why the flick would probably have been better off as a short film. As it stands, however, I’d argue that it’s still worth suffering through some of the flick’s cringy moments in order to get to the good stuff.
Ironically enough, I Hate Found Footage will probably only entertain veterans who are already more inclined to forgive the genre’s common pitfalls and recurring tropes. After all, the production was clearly helmed by a team with a deep knowledge of how these movies work and what fans expect to see when they press play on a low-budget POV adventure. While I still think there’s only enough humor and story here to sustain a half-hour-long short, I’d still recommend this feature to die-hard fans who enjoy a healthy dose of silliness alongside their POV scares.
I Hate Found Footage is now streaming on Found TV.
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