Infested (2023): review

Danger follows him home

Kaleb collects exotic animals. A newly acquired spider sets a threat in motion that will not stay inside his room. The housing block becomes the setting for a struggle to survive, with familiar routes suddenly turned into hazards.

Sébastien Vaniček extracts considerable tension from this contained environment. Corridors, stairwells and apartments lose their everyday safety. The restricted space matters: escaping is never presented as a conveniently simple option.

People rather than disposable victims

Théo Christine gives Kaleb believable energy and uncertainty. His relationships with the other characters also have substance. Sofia Lesaffre and Finnegan Oldfield help make the group feel like people with connections, rather than an arbitrary collection of future victims.

Those bonds and disagreements make the danger more personal. The building also remains a social space. Isolation and the feeling of being abandoned by the outside world deepen the horror without displacing the creature story.

Images and sounds under pressure

Alexandre Jamin’s camera makes the restrictions of the setting tangible, keeping the danger present even when the situation becomes difficult to read. The combination of real spiders and digital effects is persuasive; the creatures do not merely become an exhibition of conspicuous effects.

Douglas Cavanna and Xavier Caux’s music avoids dominating every moment. Movement and other sounds have room to register. That restraint encourages the uncomfortable habit of searching every corner of the frame for a threat.

Verdict

Infested is an intense and impressively directed creature feature. Its claustrophobic spaces work together with convincing human relationships. Anyone already uneasy around spiders is in for a particularly uncomfortable experience, but the filmmaking makes it much more than a simple phobia exercise.