Stephen King-Approved Horror Movie With 96% RT Score Leaves VFX Artists Rattled

Summary

• Infested
  , a French horror movie about a spider unleashing venomous threats, receives praise from Corridor Crew for its impressive blend of practical and CGI arachnids.
• Netting a “Certified Fresh” 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and glowing review from Stephen King, the movie could lead to a resurgence in spider-driven horror films.
• Infested
  ‘s success also proves exciting for co-writer/director Sébastien Vaniček’s upcoming
  Evil Dead
  , as he could bring a thrilling blend of Deadite terrors and insightful social commentary.

While the movie has already proven to be one of the year’s biggest horror hits, Infested is getting a glowing review from Corridor Crew. Co-written and directed by Sébastien Vaniček, the French horror movie centered on an exotic animal lover who acquires a spider, which unknowingly unleashes a venomous threat on his rundown apartment complex. Following a successful run in its home country, Infested premiered internationally on Shudder, where it garnered further rave reviews from critics and audiences, including Stephen King, currently holding a 95% “Certified Fresh” approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.

Just over two months after the movie’s Shudder premiere, the VFX artists at Corridor Crew have taken a look at Infested in the latest episode of “VFX Artists React”.

The episode segment, which can be seen above, finds Niko introducing clips from Infested to Niko and Wren, the latter of whom is generally afraid of spiders and is humorously unnerved as the segment progresses. The group go on to share their glowing reactions to the movie’s blend of practical spiders and visual effects, with Niko taking note of how the spiders were “animated so well” to create an effectively spine-tingling journey.

Infested Sets A New Bar For Spider-Driven Horror Movies

As with many of his other reviews, King’s reaction to Infested was short and sweet, and echoed many of the sentiments seen by the artists in the Corridor Crew video, describing the movie as “scary“, “gross” and “well-made.” More than just getting a glowing review from King, though, Vaniček’s hit has set a decidedly higher bar for all spider-driven horror movies going forward, particularly how the arachnids are depicted in similar efforts.

CGI spiders are certainly not unheard of in the world of horror movies, but are often done in a more cartoonish way that rarely feels as effectively terrifying as Infested‘s. While Eight Legged Freaks‘ spiders worked for the comedy-driven throwback of classic B-movies, and Spaceman‘s Hanuš was meant more to be an emotional partner to Adam Sandler’s titular character, most other CGI creations have failed to deliver genuine thrills. This is all the more evident in the various direct-to-video and SYFY Channel horror movies throughout the years, which have been praised by some for their B-movie vibes, and lamented by others for their lack of quality.

Vaniček instead hews closer to one of the most iconic spider horror movies with Frank Marshall’s Arachnophobia, choosing to not only largely rely on practical spiders, but also find ways to use special effects to accurately depict the creepy crawlers. The Infested filmmaker even explained some of this process to Screen Rant prior to the movie’s release, the most important step of which was to have the “CGI team with me all the time” on set, so as to be able to study the spiders closely on the set and believably recreate them through visual effects. See what Vaniček explained below:

Sébastien Vaniček: Yeah, we were lucky to work in a chronological way, so at the beginning of the movie, the spiders are real, because they have a little more shape. And yeah, I had the CGI team with me all the time, so we talked a lot when we were shooting the spiders, and studying them really, really closely. The legs, how they’d behave, why they’d go here, why they’d go there, how they move. We had a lot of shots with them, so the CGI team was able to work with the shots and base their shots on real ones. And that’s why, I think, with the idea of putting moving spiders in the dark, that made the CGI believable, even though we didn’t have enough money to make it like the Marvel movies, and intense, impressive CGI. I think the combination of these two ideas made the CGI work.

Infested Is A Promising Sign For Horror’s Future For 2 Reasons

Though it may have been a streaming-only release in international territories, Infested‘s success proves to offer a number of exciting signs about the future of the horror genre. One of the biggest reasons is the possibility of a resurgence in spider-driven horror movies, with the subgenre generally seeing comedic takes in more recent years. With 2024 not only bringing Vaniček’s film, which holds just as much social commentary as it does genuine chills, but also the somewhat lighter-toned Sting, its clear filmmakers are keen to explore the real terrors of arachnids.

Another reason why Infested is an exciting sign for the genre’s future is what Vaniček has lined up following his feature directorial debut. Just prior to the movie’s Shudder release, it was announced that the writer/director had been hired to develop a new Evil Dead spinoff, which he will co-write with his Infested collaborator Florent Bernard. Beyond its unique exploration of class issues in France and brutal law enforcement treatment, Vaniček displayed a strong grip on a filmmaking style that felt reminiscent of original Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, namely the hallway sequence seen in the Corridor Crew review above.

Given the Evil Dead franchise has generally been known for its practical-driven horror, Vaniček’s ability to blend both practical spiders and spine-chilling CGI arachnids in Infested points towards him being another great filmmaker to carry Raimi’s franchise forward. The 2024 movie also offers some insight for how he could blend a deeper story with the grandiose Deadite murders it’s known for, as Vaniček and Bernard’s script never lets its themes overpower its spider-driven horror. Plus, with King’s vocal support of Infested, and the platform’s release of the viral hit Late Night With The Devil, Shudder could very well see a major boost in subscriptions.

Source: Corridor Crew