Shall I start off with a straightforward and attention-grabbing statement? "Vermines" is, hands down, the best and most terrifying horror movie about spiders ever made! Adequate and reasonably uncanny films like "Kingdom of the Spiders", "Tarantula: The Deadly Cargo", and "Arachnophobia" built up a cult-reputation over the years, but if there's any justice left in this godforsaken world, it will soon be "Vermines" that is on the top-position of every "best spider horror" list. Yes, it truly is that good!
Hard to believe this is only co-writer/director Sébastien Vanicek fist long-feature film. He does everything right! "Vermines" is chock-full of subtle but clever and respectable references to great horror classics ("Braindead", "Alien", "Predator"), and the tenacious scenario masterly illustrates the racial and social tensions that have plagued France - and especially Paris - for several years now. The film is also 200% authentic. I'm not sure if it's in Paris, or if the building really exists, but it does accurately reflect the typically French banlieue with all its ethnic diversity, poor housing conditions, and enmity towards the police. The residents of the tenement are credible, too. I speak fluent French, but without the English subtitles I hadn't been able to follow how these youngsters talk. And although I'm not a big fan of French "gangster-rap", it's the only suitable soundtrack for a setting like this.
But most of all, "Vermines" is finally a mature and genuinely horrifying film about the animal, par excellence, that a large part of the population fears! If you're an arachnophobe you should stay miles away from this film, and even if you are not afraid of spiders, you're still guaranteed to cringe in your seat upon witnessing numerous moments throughout this movie.
Kaleb is an outsider, even in his secluded apartment block community. He tries making some money by illegally selling sneakers, but his true passion is taking care of his rare exotic insects and amphibians. He's lucky to add a unique spider to his collection, but during the opening credits we already witnessed how it concerns an ultra-aggressive and poisonous desert species. The spider is also pregnant, and when it escapes it doesn't take long before the apartment block is infested with rapidly procreating and non-stop evolving arachnids.
The intense and petrifying highlights in "Vermines" are too numerous to list. You feel the fear of Kaleb's sister Manon when she's trapped in the bathroom with the spider. You gaze in agony when the group must walk across a hallway blocked with cobwebs. You suffer along with the protagonists when baby spiders crawl out of the mouth of yet another deceased neighbor, etc. The special effects are sublime, so that even the largest spiders come across as realistic and terrifying. In case it wasn't clear just yet: "Vermines" is fantastic horror, and recommended to people with nerves of steel.
