Stephen King has given his coveted seal of approval to a terrifying new horror film that is sure to keep us awake at night.
Sébastien Vaniček’s Infested, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, is now available on Shudder, promising to scare viewers.
It follows a group of residents in a block in France as they face deadly spiders.
To be honest, the trailer alone has made us want to keep a can of bug spray firmly under our pillows.
Stephen King, author of It, Carrie, and The Shining, praised the film, calling it ‘gross and well made’.
Taking to Twitter, he penned: ‘INFESTED (Shudder): Spiders, some as big as puppies, overrun a French apartment building. Scary, gross, well made. (French, with English subtitles).’
Fans were ecstatic with his comments and rushed to offer their own praise for the film in the comments section below.
Denison Barb replied: ‘Yikes! Spiders. Definitely not a movie for the faint of heart. But a good one nonetheless!’
Cheryle confessed: ‘I barely made it through the preview!’
MicroFilmMusic penned: ‘This had me wiping my sleeves and checking ceilings and walls for HOURS after.’
As Patrick Doyle added: ‘Not sure about something that makes Stephen King shudder lol.’
On Rotten Tomatoes, critics gave the horror film a 96% rating, while the audience gave it an 89%.
Infested follows Kaleb (Théo Christine) as he discovers a rare spider and brings it back to his home in a derelict block of flats, completely unaware that it is about to give birth to terrifying, deadly bugs.
INFESTED (Shudder): Spiders, some as big as puppies, overrun a French apartment building. Scary, gross, well made. (French, with English subtitles)
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 1, 2024
In a flash, the entire building is overrun by huge spiders, causing everyone inside to be quarantined.
The official synopsis reads: ‘Residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.’
To make the film as realistic as possible, 200 real spiders were used on set during filming – but not at the same time…
Sébastien recently opened up about why he would inflict these nightmare-inducing bugs upon us, insisting that there is no real reason ‘to be afraid’.
We’ll be the judge of that one…
Speaking to Daily Beast, he said: ‘They are able to shoot for 10 seconds, and then after that they are tired, and you can’t have anything from them.
‘You have to understand them, and understand that they are really fragile creatures. They are always afraid and they want to hide. When they are on the floor, they will run and they will seek a place in the shadow.
Neighbors witness a nightmare unfold as venomous spiders overrun the premises. Can they stop the spread in time? 🕷️
INFESTED is now streaming on Shudder. pic.twitter.com/1yu0FRkyys
— Shudder (@Shudder) April 26, 2024
‘They are able to run for about 10 seconds, and after just 10 seconds they are completely tired. You can put them on the wall and let them stay, and I can film them because I know they won’t move.’
‘I wanted a spider that you kind of recognize because you know this type of spider, everybody has one of these in their shower one day,’ he added. ‘But I made them bigger. And with big legs like this you can understand that they will run really fast.’
Infested is now available to stream on Shudder.
