It's always interesting to watch a horror film with Themes. Vermines, released as Infested in the US, is a movie practically dripping with them. Racism, classism, police brutality, friendship, honor: all have a part to play in this, much deeper than something described to me as 'French Arachnophobia.' It was a woefully inadequate description of what I ended up watching.
Thankfully, the movie still works well even if you don't engage with the themes - though it is nothing if richer an experience to do so - telling a creepy story of spiders rapidly reproducing and taking over a Banlieue in Paris. A group of friends works to save themselves from these highly aggressive spiders, with the predictable, and a few unpredictable, challenges in the way.
Our main character is Kaleb (Theo Christine), collector of exotic animals, who buys the first of the spiders to invade the building. He and his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko) are arguing over selling or keeping their home, with Manon doing quite a bit of renovating in hopes of moving away. They are helped by Mathys (Jerome Niel), a friend of both, and Kaleb's estranged friend Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield) and Jordy's girlfriend Lila (Sofia Lesaffre).
The dynamics of this friend group is an essential part of the story, with buried resentments amongst them, particularly after the death of Kaleb and Manon's mother, adding extra stress once the bodies start piling up. This feels like a believable group of people, and their reactions to one another and the situation drives the story moreso than the attacking spiders.
The first 75% of the movie works amazingly well. There are interesting shots, music choices, along with some decent character building of not only the group of friends, but of other residents within the building. Every attempt to control or evade the spiders is staged well, and the film never gets less-interesting when the spiders are not on screen.
That last 25% though...
It is not uncommon for creature features to lose a bit of steam towards the end as they work to either escape or defeat whatever monster they are up against. Vermines does a better job than most at overcoming this, but it still starts to turn me away with some choices made regarding the spiders.
I won't spoil said choices, but it involves an escalation that I don't think was necessarily needed, plus a slight tonal shift that is part of the transition to the climax that forces the movie to basically rebuild the energy. It overplays certain emotional payoffs also, which is more minor sin of the ending, but another glance at that final section of the script might've been warranted.
It doesn't remove the movie, thankfully, but it does let the air out a bit as you get to the end. I'd still readily recommend this movie though.
7 out of 10
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