Movie Nights: Week in review 5.17-5.23
This week we got caught up with some creepy crawlies.
Infested (2023)
Sébastien Vanicek makes his feature-length directorial debut with Infested. This is such an instant Spider Movie Classic, it is genuinely frightening, well acted and enthralling throughout. We HATE spiders so this one freaked us out. The spiders themselves are so terrifying, so many small ones are worse than one big one. The friend group in the film feels really authentic and genuine. The music in the intro and throughout really sets the tone and puts you there with this group of young people in this low income area of France. It has some really interesting shots that show different perspectives. The whole time you’re uncomfortable and there is a horrific and tense vibe. We love the concept and loved seeing the different spider attacks in different apartments. The whole vibe of the movie feels isolated, dark, grim, and poverty stricken. The special effects are incredible, that mixed with using 200 real giant huntsman spiders throughout makes everything feel so real it makes your skin crawl. Would definitely recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of creature feature horror.
Photo Credit IMDB
Sting (2024)
Sting is a lot of fun, the concept of a kid raising a giant spider is pretty great and they execute it beautifully. Starring Alyla Browne, Ryan Corr and Jermaine Fowler, this whole film has a gritty feeling to it. It follows a family in a smaller apartment and all the characters feel pretty relatable and better than standard. They do a great job playing with shadows and creating a sense of constant anxiety. The attacks are intense, brutal and we love the ending! There are a lot of cool effects with the dead bodies. Special effects legend Richard Taylor (LOTR, Dead Alive) made a giant animatronic puppet at the end that took six people to control, and it is beyond impressive. A fun and exciting spider flick with awesome effects that keeps you on your toes! would recommend to any bug/insect movie fan.
Photo Credit IMDB
Arachnophobia (1990)
Arachnophobia is a childhood favorite of ours, the spider slipper scene scarred us early. This movie is a great example of a horror movie for the masses. Just enough terror for horror fans but enough light hearted comedic relief that it's fun for the whole family. This film used over 300 real Avondale spiders from New Zealand which gives it such an authentic and horrific feel throughout. There is such good tension in all the scenes with spiders, there are some truly terrifying images. The actors all do an incredible job to convey the horror and make us feel it too. John Goodman really keeps the vibes light when needed but overall you feel uncomfortable and unsafe the whole time. Honestly this is the ultimate spider movie and if you like horror you should give it a watch.
Photo Credit Photo by Amblin Entertainment - © 1990
Eight Legged Freaks (2002)
Eight Legged Freaks is one of Aletha’s favorites and full of nostalgia. The cast is kinda stacked with David Arquette (who we LOVE), Kari Wuhrer, Scarlett Johansson, and even more familiar faces. They all come together to make the most fun killer spider movie out there. We love all the little noises and laughs coming from the spiders, it makes them seem so much more devious. We love the version of “Itsy Bitsy” that plays throughout. It fits everything so perfectly. Cool characters, a cheesy backstory and giant laughing spiders out to destroy the town? What more do you need!
Photo Credit IMDB
Itsy Bitsy (2019)
Itsy Bitsy has one of the more original premises of the spider movies we watched this week, in this one the spider is actually an ancient spirit taking the form of giant killer Spiders. Although it is not worth watching, it was less terrible than we originally speculated. The special effects were pretty terrible especially considering it's from the last 5 years. It has characters that you don’t really care about, we hated the mother in the story she was awful. She made terrible decisions at every turn which was just frustrating, she also kept having these weirdly edited flashbacks of her child’s death and it just seemed distracting and unnecessary. The plot is pretty wild but it was a fast paced ride and could’ve been worse.
Photo Credit IMDB
Arachnid (2001)
Arachnid follows a team that has crash landed on an island to find the creature that bit a man that was rushed to the hospital with mysterious bites that led to his death. Nothing really notable stands out in this one, the spiders looked pretty silly and seemed few and far between. The plot was boring and didn’t hold our attention. The actors were fine but nothing special. Overall there is nothing that made this worth watching or remembering.
Photo Credit IMDB
Kill of the week goes to infested.
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