One of the most common fears people have is arguably that of spiders, andInfested— the title alone is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl — takes full advantage of this. Indeed,Shudder’s newest film deftly maintains throughout its runtime that all-too-familiar anxiety of feeling like something is crawling up your arm, thrumming with a steady paranoia as the characters duck around web-covered corners. In this way, it essentially operates as agreat survival moviethat skates into creature-feature territory, while also weaving in psychological and body horror elements. That said,Infested’s most remarkable trait is how, amid all this, it somehow still finds space to show us a more sinister evil than the eight-legged monsters.
Directed by Sébastien Vaniček (co-writing with Florent Bernard),Infestedsees a French apartment building (that very clearly has seen better days) becoming ravaged by fast-growing and equally fast-breeding spiders. It all starts with Kaleb (Théo Christine) illegally purchasing a spider to add to, we later discover, his veritable zoo of reptiles, insects, and other creepy crawlies that he (safely and responsibly) keeps in his bedroom. Of course, in his rush to get to his elderly neighbor’s birthday party, Kaleb fails to secure his newly bought spider. It naturally escapes and lays eggs everywhere it goes. These eggs quickly hatch and terrorize the tenants, who are quarantined while officials try to figure out what to do.
Arachnophobia and Claustrophobia Working in Tandem
Even if you aren’t afraid of spiders,Infestedwill inevitably make you squirm in certain parts. This is partly because the film doesn’t just rely on its arachnids to elicit fear. Vaniček makes use of all thegreat horror tropesand conventions that are reminiscent of classic horror. From the grating strings of composers Xavier Caux and Douglas Cavanna to the high-contrast cinematography by Alexandre Jamin that makes the darkest corridors feel like an abyss, the movie effectively preys on our senses and primes us for a thrilling ride. As a result, the scurrying of the smallest spider in the corner of a frame is enough to fill us with dread.
In no way does this mean that the spiders themselves aren’t terrifying (one scene indirectly referencesAlien’s chest-burster scene). Perhaps not since 1990’sArachnophobiahas there been a horror movie that presents these eight-legged creatures as actual monsters. Throughout cinema history, and evenArachnophobiais guilty of this to a degree, horror movies about spiders have erred towards camp and/or comedy (think:Spider BabyandEight Legged Freaks).
InInfested, however, Vaniček and Bernard grant this species of spider a certain grotesque mythology, allowing its exoticism to fuel our imagination. The opening sequence, in fact, shows a group of men traveling to a middle-of-nowhere desert to hunt it down. One of them succumbs to its bite in the most excruciating way possible, and only a merciful death is his salvation.
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It also helps thatInfestedtriggers our collective trauma in that Kaleb and the rest of his neighbors — which includes his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko), friend Mathys (Jérôme Niel), estranged best buddy Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield), and Jordy’s partner Lila (Sofia Lesaffre) — are forced to quarantine by city officials, who initially believe that the first victims of the spiders have died either by accidental drug overdose or some sort of viral infection. Immediately, the film recalls the isolation we all felt at the height ofthe COVID-19 pandemicwhen we were locked down and restless.
Something More Sinister Than Spiders
What also propelsInfestedis its focus on humanity. The film takes its time, specifically in the first act, to allow us to get to know the main cast and the key tenants of the building. While some characters suffer from a lack of full development, which becomes especially glaring in the final, go-big-or-go-home action sequence, Vaniček does take great care in establishing Kaleb, in particular, as a complex protagonist. In this role, Christine is exciting to watch as he juggles the layers of his character: his complicated history, his struggle to find his stride in the world, and his guilt over bringing the spider to the apartment in the first place.
In a way,Infested’s equal prioritization of the individuals of this community unearths an even more evil threat than the spiders: the humans themselves. On one hand, there’s an argument to be made about the way in which the original spider was involuntarily ripped from its natural habitat, trafficked by illegal traders, and then forced to survive in less-than-ideal situations. As a matter of fact, the spiders largely attack in retaliation to the humans' first strike. Elsewhere, they are only doing what they’re naturally meant to do: nest and breed.
On the other hand, there’s the way Kaleb and his neighbors are treated by the authorities. Whether thesocial commentary in this horror filmwas intentional on Vaniček’s part,Infestedis as compelling and believable as it is because the residents are predominantly Black, brown, and/or poor: no other demographic is disproportionately abandoned or misunderstood by the authorities. Between the authorities assuming drugs were initially involved in the tenants' deaths, the lack of media coverage, and the fact that Kaleb and his friends are disregarded by the police, racism is as widespread and insidious as the spiders themselves.
InInfested’s final action sequence, amid the chaos of police officers shooting at spiders crawling in from everywhere, it’s important to note that a moment of compassion wins the day.
