French horror film “Infested” will definitely make one of my close friends wince and jump more than once. He really dislikes spiders to say the least, and he may think twice about watching “Infested” even though he actually enjoyed “Arachnophobia” (1990), which is also full of small and big venomous spiders but is relatively more cheerful in comparison.

After the disturbing opening scene set in the middle of some Arab desert area, the movie introduces us to Kaleb (Théo Christine), a young colored man who has tried to earn his meager living via selling sneakers to his multicultural neighbors in some big suburban apartment building. He has lived with his sister Manon (Lisa Nyarko) in their family apartment, but they have conflicted a lot with each other over whether they should sell their apartment after their dear mother’s recent death. While he does not want to leave for the memories of their mother, his sister is already preparing to renovate their apartment for selling it someday, and this certainly annoys him a lot.

Meanwhile, we get to know a bit about Kaleb’s little private hobby. He loves collecting and raising various rare animals and insects, and his latest purchase is a small exotic spider he recently bought from a local convenient store owner. Needless to say, that spider is one of those dangerous spiders shown in the opening scene, and the mood naturally becomes unnerving as Kaleb casually handles that spider in his room later while having no idea about the potential danger in front of him.

Of course, the spider soon escapes from his room, and we soon come to see how dangerous it really is. Besides being quite lethal, it can grow and reproduce a lot within a very short time, and how it reproduces is not a pretty sight to say the least. Exponentially growing in number and size hour by hour, the spiders eventually infest here and there in the apartment building, which is swiftly quarantined by the local police not long after the first victim is reported. Shortly after they belatedly come to realize what is really going on around them, Kaleb and several others around him including his sister find themselves hopelessly trapped inside the apartment building, and it looks like there is no possible way out for them.

Naturally thrown into more fear and panic, Kaleb and several others desperately try to find any chance for survival and escape while also attempting to warn many of neighbors in the building. However, not so surprisingly, things continue to get worse and worse while they remain trapped inside the building as before. Although they come to learn a bit about how to stop or chase away their deadly enemies at least for a while, the building is already filled with thousands of spiders and their silky webs, which surely add more creepiness to the screen.

As Kaleb and several other main characters come to stick together for their escape and survival, director/co-writer Sébastien Vaniček, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several short films, doles out a number of effective moments to accumulate more tension and dread on the screen. While there are some nasty moments as many people in the building get killed by the spiders in one way or another, there is also a suspenseful scene where Kaleb and several others must carefully and quickly go through a tunnel of web strewn with spiders, and this scene will surely keep you on the edge especially if you have any aversion to spider.

Although the mood surely becomes more frantic around the last act, the movie keeps focusing on the main characters and their desperate struggle along the story. While he feels like your average petty lad at times, Kaleb comes to show more depth later in the story, and there is a brief reflective moment when Kaleb comes to have a little personal conversation with one of the main characters. The movie also makes some points on how Kaleb and many other colored neighbors of his are often discriminated and ignored by the local police, and this certainly contributes to the cathartic aspects of the finale.

During the climatic sequence predictably filled with plenty of action and a lot of CGI spiders, the movie willingly goes for some overkill, though the result is a bit too long in my humble opinion. Fortunately, it still makes us care about whatever will happen to its main characters in the end, and it also allows a bit more character development around the end of the story.

The main cast members of the film are convincing in the increasing panic and fear felt by their characters. While Théo Christine dutifully holds the center as required, Sofia Lesaffre, Jérôme Niel, Lisa Nyarko, and Finnegan Oldfield have each own moment along the story, and Niel has several good moments as his character comes to show a lot more grit for helping not only Kaleb and several others than expected.

On the whole, “Infested” is a well-made genre piece which will scare or entertain you enough, though you may still hesitate to watch after reading my 3-star review. I must confess that some spiders such as, say, tarantula are sort of cute to me, but the movie makes me swear that I should never, never, never meddle with any kind of unknown exotic spider in any case, and that says a lot about its effectiveness.