Two spider movies coming out around the same time? Sign me up! Infested is one of the latest French horror films invading the hearts of international genre fans. What happens when you take Evil Dead Rise, add spiders, and make it French? You get Infested. That comparison, to Evil Dead Rise, hits a different chord knowing that Infested director and co-writer Sébastien Vanicek is set to direct the latest Evil Dead film. In hindsight, Infested almost feels like an Evil Dead audition reel.
A Taste of What’s to Come from Future Evil Dead Director Sébastien Vanicek
Knowing, mere minutes before watching Infested, about the director’s attachment to an upcoming franchise picture immediately made me look at this film in a different light. There were deep stakes involved now. If this debut feature filmmaker pulls off Infested, I’ll continue to keep my hopes high for the Evil Dead franchise. If not, then c’est la vie. Infested follows Kaleb (Théo Christine) who lives in a tenement building and collects creatures of the slithery, slimy, and eight-legged varieties. After getting a truly exotic spider from a possible AliExpress knockoff, Kaleb’s life turns upside down. Can he save his family and friends before the apartment building becomes their graves?
Sébastien Vanicek strikes an unbelievably tense atmosphere with Infested and, thankfully, almost never gives a reprieve. Even though some, maybe most of the spiders looked fully digital (and if they weren’t, then yikes), their visual presence on screen was still enough to make me feel covered in them. That goes double for a specific hallway scene.
A Promising Debut From Director Sébastien Vanicek
Where the film goes off the rails, and this could be due to this being Vanicek’s directorial feature debut, is the pacing. Vanicek has trouble balancing the pace, scares, and atmosphere. It all becomes a bit too much, and not in a successful way. What we get with Infested shows incredible promise for a director at the start of their career.
Writers Florent Bernard and Sébastien Vanicek have a fairly solid and impactful script, giving each character their own chance for growth. The problem with that is the film ultimately fails as an ensemble piece. Each one of Kaleb’s neighbors gets a fair amount of screen time, but what’s supposed to feel like an ensemble piece slowly starts to feel like a Kaleb-centered film with a few scenes of other people sprinkled in. Again, there is no problem there, but Infested would work better as a fully realized ensemble piece.
However, the pros significantly outweigh the cons with Infested and will leave audiences feeling tiny legs on their bodies for hours. And if you’re excited about the next Evil Dead film, you should watch this just to get a sneak peek of what we’re in store for. I think we’re in good hands. Infested crawls onto Shudder on April 26.
Check out the trailer below!
