Overlook Film Festival 2024 – Infested, formerly titled Vermines, easily could have been a schlocky B movie about killer spiders with cheesy CGI effects. Thankfully, it’s not that. Director Sébastien Vanicek‘s debut feature is an unrelenting, often pulse-pounding creature feature with aggressive and venomous creepy crawlies. It’s also a not-so-subtle social commentary.

The film opens with a team trying to eradicate the spiders in Dubai. However, it doesn’t go as planned, and hordes of spiders quickly climb out of a hole and attack. The movie then shifts to France, just outside Paris, where protagonist Kaleb (Théo Christine) purchases one of the spiders from a buddy, though he’s unaware of the deadly consequences. Kaleb makes a living selling sneakers illegally and lives with his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko) in a block apartment complex. He dreams of opening his own reptile zoo one day. His entire bedroom is filled with all sorts of buggies. Of course, the single spider he purchases eventually gets loose, and somehow these critters multiply rapidly and grow bigger and bigger.

At first, the spiders just pick off one tenant here and there in the rundown apartment complex. The arachnids skitter down walls and creep out of drains. One even hides in a bathroom towel. For anyone afraid of spiders, this movie is pure nightmare fuel. The suspense never relents. The spiders hide in every corner, and they overtake the apartment complex to the point their webs are everywhere, like thick cocoons. There’s one especially effective sequence where Kaleb, Manon, and a few of their friends have to navigate a cobwebby hallway to make it to the door on the other side. Spiders loom above their heads and dot every inch of the walls. It’s one of the most intense sequences you’ll see in any film this year.

What elevates this film beyond standard creature feature territory is some of its social commentary. It never feels over the top, but it’s there. Kaleb, Manon, and some of their friends, especially Lila (Sofia Lesaffre) and Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield), are all marginalized characters in their own way. So are most tenants in the apartment. They face abuse at the hands of the police, who lock them in the apartment complex soon after the infestation begins. Beyond that, some of the other tenants accuse Kaleb especially of selling drugs, thus trafficking in racial stereotypes. The film’s previous title, Vermines, is a pretty on-the-nose reference to what’s going on here. The main cast of characters are seen as the Other, discriminated against frequently.

The film doesn’t quite stick the landing, especially when survivors battle giant spiders in a parking garage. Additionally, because of the breakneck pacing, some of the characters aren’t fully fleshed out. We’re never quite given enough time with them because there’s one spider attack after the other. It would have been nice if the suspense slowed just a bit to create enough breathing room for characterization. One positive, however, is the sibling relationship between Kaleb and Manon, which does feel fully realized.

Infested is one heck of a feature debut. It’s a nerve-jangling creature feature with downright frightening spiders and smart social commentary.

8 out of 10