Infested (2024)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Eight-Legged Sneaks

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Just weeks after Sting was released in theaters, another amazing killer-spider movie, Sébastien Vaniček's Infested (a.k.a. Vermines), dropped on Shudder. All I can say is that they might be the double-bill of the year. Infested follows Kaleb (Théo Christine), who lives in a huge apartment building, makes a living selling sneakers and, on the side, collects exotic animals. He finds a strange spider in a local shop and brings it home. It escapes, breeds, and soon there are thousands of oversized, skittering creatures overrunning the building. The spider FX are top-notch, but the movie, like Sting, unleashes them upon strong characters. Kaleb is currently fighting with his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko) over what to do with their mother's apartment (Kaleb wants to keep it and Manon wants to sell), and there are awkward business and personal relationships with others in the building. And, due to his skin color and penchant for wearing hoodies, he's often mistaken for a drug dealer (especially when one of his clients dies from a spider hiding in a sneaker). And there are many smart sequences of humans attempting to battle spiders, losing ground, discovering that the spiders are afraid of fire, but not employing this knowledge to maximum effect. It's a constantly surprising, shocking, and satisfying creature feature.