Recensioni degli utenti

The best spider horror film in the history of cinema. On the other hand, you can count the number of horror stories about spiders on one hand :-)

Well acted, funny, well shot and keeps you in suspense from start to finish.

It also has an accurate social commentary on groups of people "pushed" to the outskirts of large cities, who, like the spiders in the film, often have to fight for survival.

It's a dream directorial debut that looks like a good million-dollar horror hit. It is worth following the development of this director's career.

I recommend it to everyone who is not afraid of spiders.

Quite interesting and suspense. You start to like the characters, unlike some other horror movies. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, and was satisfied with the result.

(I'd like to address one person in the reviews. If you think that Guillermo del Toro movies are boring and bad, you have every right to leave a review, but it won't be acknowledged. I was interested in your bad review, and decided to look at others, oh boy, I wasn't disappointed. Very peculiar taste in movies.)

Anyways, a good movie, likeable characters, interesting plot. I'm not American so I don't mind a foreign movie and subtitles. All in all, 7.5/10.

Overall, "Vermines" delivers top-notch editing that keeps the viewer engaged from start to finish. The character development is well-crafted, building up to a frenetic pace that holds your attention until the end. For arachnophobes, this film can push the boundaries of their fears, even for those who aren't afraid of spiders, like myself. The characters, coming from a lower class background, are fleshed out throughout the story, making it easy to connect with them. Surprisingly, even for someone who isn't a fan of hip-hop/rap, the predominantly urban music soundtrack adds to the film's vibe. "Vermines" can be likened to "REC", swapping out zombies for spiders in a building. While not groundbreaking, it achieves its goal of entertaining and delivering horror at certain moments. However, it could have pushed for more intense and impactful moments, especially to ramp up the suspense. The third act, while not weak, leaves something to be desired in terms of a more memorable and epic conclusion.

"Vermines" is a more complex film than it seems at first glance, the script touches on topics such as gentrification in a French building inhabited by people of African and Arab descent. This type of racism and discrimination is constantly seen in the film and as social criticism it is added to spiders as an example of the animal kingdom that is affected by urbanization, thus emphasizing gentrification as a central theme. Within the horror and thriller genres, the film achieves interesting and distressing scenes. The main characters are endearing and you care about them. The cinematography achieves a great atmosphere along with the filming locations and the camera movements manage to accentuate the action captured on the screen. The cast is top-notch, each actor imbues their characters with their own style. The director does an elegant job, he knows perfectly well what he wants to tell and how to do it. "Vermines" is a very good film that manages to give a message with social criticism.

I was totally hooked. Probably one of the best creature horror movies in the past ten years. Everything seemed quite realistic, and I could totally relate to all the creepy ideas about spider attacks. The second half of the movie is a typical creature feature thingy. Overall, recommended.

Synopsis: Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He's fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.

This was a movie that had buzz coming to Shudder. It sounds like this did well at festivals and there was excitement. Due to that information, it jumped up to the top of my movies to watch for 2024 to build my end of year list. There also wasn't a 2024 horror film coming to the theater by me so I checked this out as a Featured Review. I've also given it a second watch to see where I ended up with my thoughts as well.

Synopsis: residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.

We start this in a desert somewhere in the middle east. There are guys searching and one of them finds a hole under a rock. There is a bit of webbing in it. They have a method to flush out spiders that are living within. This guy is joined by his group and they're catching the ones that flee. We see that the guy who found it wasn't so lucky.

This then shifts over to France. Our main character is Kaleb (Théo Christine). He is at a local store where he is messing with the owner, Ali (Samir Nait). Kaleb knows that this proprietor has better merchandise hidden and that he should be able to see it since he's a good customer. This turns out to be true. He buys a set of earrings. He also sees a rare spider. Ali thinks it could be poisonous so Kaleb needs to be careful. Our character buys both items.

When he returns home, we get a better idea of where he lives. He helps Mme Zhao (Xing Xing Cheng) who seems like the superintendent or a custodian. He roughs up Moussa (Mahamadou Sangaré) for the mess he made. He then goes up to his apartment that he shares with his sister, Manon (Lisa Nyarko). She is remodeling the bathroom and this upsets Kaleb. What we learn is that their mother passed away. His sister wants to sell and leave. Kaleb doesn't due to all the memories here as well as all the people that knew his mother around them. Their neighbors are leaving though, as they go to a going away party.

In Kaleb's room, he has a mini-zoo. He has a range of insects, arachnids and reptiles. He gets upset as the lights and the heater keep getting shut off. He's worried his pets will die. We then see how he can afford all this. He has a shoe trade. His partner is Mathys (Jérôme Niel). This guy is stealing bicycles which upsets Kaleb since he's doing it in the area. Since it is low income, Kaleb doesn't want those around him to suffer any more than they already do. Mathys understands and vows to return them. He also does MMA.

Now this spider that Kaleb has. He makes a home for it in an old shoebox. This doesn't hold though and it gets out. He tries to seal his room until he can find it. There is a complication that it is much smarter and its will to survive greater. Kaleb is faced with seeing his ex-best friend as well, Jordy (Finnegan Oldfield). He along with his girlfriend, Lila (Sofia Lesaffre) come over to help with the bathroom. Mathys is there as well.

Things take a dark turn though when this spider reproduces. None of our characters realize what its potential is and how quickly it evolves. This complex is soon overrun and the police need to do what they can to hold it. That leads to a fight for survival.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that if you don't like spiders, this is going to get under your skin. I've heard other reviews crediting this for taking the subject seriously as most using killer spiders tend to go whimsical. Whether that is making them large or just going lighter with the tone. This one is bleak and gave me vibes of REC with the idea that our characters get trapped inside this building and the police are quarantining them until a plan can be made. It is also interesting that this came out the same year as Sting, since this is a similar movie. They would make a good double feature.

Now that I have that out of the way, let's delve deeper into the premise. This is a simple one. We have this dangerous spider that is living in the desert. It is found, captured and brought to France. Ali doesn't know much about it and neither does Kaleb. This ignorance leads to everything. We have an old rundown building, which helps with the atmosphere. Trapping the people inside makes it contained. This legitimately goes terrifying as well with how quickly these spiders take over. That disrepair helps as well. It doesn't feel like a cheat though with information that is found about them. Jordy thinks he found what species they are and that they will continue to grow larger to combat their predator in the area they live. In this case, humans. They evolve fast due to how quickly they reproduce.

Those parts of the concept help to make this scary. What aids in that is the development of the characters. We learn enough to the point where my anxiety went up worrying how they would survive. I'll also include here the performances. Christine as Kaleb was good. He is naïve, but he's also a good guy. He cares about this complex and the people inside. There is something that happened between him and Jordy, which is eating away at him. It adds heart when we finally learn what it is. Nyarko is good as his sister. She seems like she hates where they live, but there is more to it. That was good. I like Niel as his best friend. He isn't dumb, but he doesn't think things through. I love that he has his hero moments since we know that he's a former boxer and now an MMA fighter. Oldfield and Lesaffre were also good to round out our main group. Other than that, I thought the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed. Something I'll credit here as well, no one feels safe as we go on.

Before moving away completely, I did want to bring up social commentary here. What I read was that it was intentional to be set in a low-income development. This shows not only that this place needs repairs, but that the police coming to help is delayed. There is also disregard for getting people out. I'll say that this is a double-edged sword. Part of it is that they need to ensure no spiders do either. It also feels like everyone living here is expendable, tenant and cops alike. That adds tension knowing that. I thought that was well-done without being over the top.

Let's then finish this out with filmmaking. The big thing here would be effects. My guess is that there were real spiders used where they could be. The rest was CGI. It looks good though. Part of that is this building is dark inside. The shadows help to hide things. That also allows the spiders to run rampant. The attack scenes were great. It made me uncomfortable. I'll also credit the cinematography and the framing. The setting is great. Other than that, the sound design also adds to this. Hearing the noises the spiders make made my skin crawl. I'll credit that as well.

In conclusion, this movie lived up to the hype for me. I thought that it had a simple premise that it took seriously. Taking this deadly spider that the people living in this building don't know about and then it goes unchecked is terrifying. The effects were great, as was the cinematography, framing and sound design. Character development is also a big help. I know info about each one and care about what happens to them. I'd recommend this one for sure. Be warned, it is French so I watched it with subtitles. To be honest, there isn't a lot of dialogue so that helps. Having now seen this a second time, I still enjoy it and think it is good. That has been solidified for me.

My Rating: 8 out of 10.

Excellent technical skill on the film-making front, horror or not. Cannot believe this is a first for this film maker and I can't wait to see what he does next. I will be following him. He captured excellent performances from this group of gorgeous actors and set the mood perfectly with the cinematography. Great story, well-handled socio-politics, without being heavy-handed Gritty and plausible. My one small complaint is the length. This story can be told in 90 minutes. There is homage here to some of the best, including The Descent, Night of the Living Dead and Quarantine. It's a gem and I hope the beginning of a few careers.

French horror film which refreshes the genre that is far too under-represented in France (at least poorly). Incredible soundtrack, well-held tension throughout the film. This Dozens of spiders thinking would you know what it is? This is the first time director that came out of nowhere that said. According to Sam Raimi he stated that You should be the next director for EVIL DEAD FILM next year which he is looking for a outstanding director that would make this film intense, yes this french creepy crawley 8 legged creature not just one but hundreds dozens of them that absolutely made me feel extremely intense. My body was wooah definitely good stuff.

This was Sebastien Vanicek's directorial debut and it was a cracker.

French horror is almost always good chiefly because there are always rich characters with human stories. This is no exception. Well written, well directed and well acted it is a movie full of human tragedy and the healing from loss and pain is almost as important a feature of this movie as surviving the monster spiders.

As a creature feature it is a competent turn. The nasties are nasty, there's some good effects, plenty to keep the more squeamish viewer firmly behind their hands and a couple of pretty terrifying scenes.

The main thing here is that I cared about the characters. This is a big failure in so much Hollywood horror. I enjoyed this a lot.

This movie is incredibly tense and had my skin crawling from start to finish. A lot of attention was given to character development, and while the runtime drags on a bit too long, likely due to the overly long setup of the story, I have to admit I came away from it both exhausted and impressed.

The setting is cluttered and bleak, depicting a lot of the struggles of lower class people living in an apartment complex, and it suddenly becomes a lot more claustrophobic in the second half, when you're painfully aware that at any moment a spider could crawl out from any nook or cranny.

The first half of the film does take a bit too long to establish all these characters' relationships, but on the other hand, it does do a good job of making you care about those characters, which makes all the dangerous scenes that much more tense. And I really appreciated how diverse and engaging the cast was.

Overall it was pretty memorable. Some of those scenes still make me shudder.