SÉBASTIEN VANICEK | FRANCE | 2023 | 103 MIN | FRENCH
Street-smart hustler Kaleb (Théo Christine), the protagonist of this squirm-inducing horror film, has a fondness for reptiles and other creepy-crawly critters. So when he encounters an exotic spider in a shop, he can’t resist snapping it up and takes it (now christened Rihanna) back to his rundown apartment block in the suburbs of Paris. Of course, Rihanna doesn’t stay contained for long, and by the time Kaleb notices her absence, it’s too late: the entire building has been infested with Rihanna’s spawn. What follows is a vicious fight for survival, with Kaleb and his compatriots battling against the rapidly growing army of arachnids as the building fills with cobwebs and neighbors succumb to the spiders’ fatal venom. With his debut, Sébastien Vanicek has concocted a sneakily subversive new twist on the creature feature, offering a fresh and idiosyncratic take on life in Paris’s low-income banlieue through a gleefully gory genre lens. Packed to the brim with perfectly constructed jump scares, this visceral, fast-paced, and smartly crafted chiller is sure to get under viewers’ skin.
Cast: Théo Christine, Sofia Lesaffre, Jérôme Niel, Lisa Nyarko
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