Film seen with great interest given that Vanicek will direct the next Evil Dead, a socially critical horror is staged which represents the cross-section of French society, the clashes between the police and the less well-off sections of society. The social aspect is not pedantic and does not distract from the mechanics of the genre, everything is set inside a building with the clear intent of creating claustrophobic atmospheres and of ghettoizing, precisely, the poor of society by creating a parallelism with the same spiders.
Vanicek knows how to create suggestive images and well-constructed shots where good shots are created through chromatic games using green and red lights.
C 'It is also a good use of the focus, to limit the depth of field and therefore the out of focus.
The use of the focus, together with the very extensive use of the hand-held camera, dirty the staging, also giving that sensation of a "suburban tale" trying to instill anguish and claustrophobic atmospheres.
Vanicek, however, is not able to fully exploit these images and does not have a skilled hand, debut film, in knowing how to fuel tension.
The film presents several clichés and there are moments with rather standard jump scares and generic dynamics in trying to build the atmosphere.< br />We notice that the direction is unable to create, make it last, the moments could give intensity, there are good scenes where both the spiders and the victims of the scene coexist but the latter (the victims) are unaware of the presence of spiders, therefore suspense is created, but then the management is rather fast, therefore those strong overtakes and a slow cutting that would have fueled the atmosphere are missing.
The very extensive use of the in fact, the hand often moves everything a little too much, the crossing of the corridor is well photographed, it is a potentially highly atmospheric moment however those fluid camera movements make the dynamics too "fast", more breathing space, more prolonged fixed shots, going into the details to increase the tension it would have benefited the atmosphere and would have strengthened the good staging that the film has.
The spiders work anyway, visually they have a good result, the film probably has few resources, however there is little creativity in the attack of the spiders, they often jump on the victims in the same way, therefore the individual killings are not diversified and some blood, some artisanal effects to decompose the bodies would have been helpful.
For example, from the dog eating the spider one might expect something similar to The Thing for the rest of the film, but instead, but I repeat perhaps due to lack of means, there is little inventiveness in exploiting these moments, even in view of Evil Dead, more madness and creativity is needed.
It's a debut film and this can also be seen in the uncertainty in managing the soundtrack which can often be intrusive and weakens even suggestive moments for via rap/hip-pop music in the sequence where the victims are shown, well framed.
Furthermore, there are enough phone dynamics where Vanicek does not play with the times or with the expectations of the viewer, the wriggles of the spiders are all predictable.
The "1-2-3 star" style dynamics with the spiders work, the sequence plan of climbing the stairs is good, it's a more action dynamic what horror, but the little game with the spiders that paralyze themselves through the light is well rendered, here yes, by the lively direction.
On the characters, not all are well managed, Lila for example in terms of characterization is poorly developed, there is the brother-sister dynamic with memories of the mother, now dead, and of the dream of creating a natural reserve for reptiles that Kaleb, the protagonist, wants to pursue.
So at times it has the same defects that I attribute to Evil Dead Rise, excessive speed but Vanicek seems more talented to me than Cronin, Vanicek creates the paintings but often doesn't know how to exploit them, so there is a lack in the management of horror times, which are standard, but as a debut it is better than The Hole, the latter being Cronin's somewhat mediocre debut.
In the end I liked the white light of the exterior that pervades the scene, even the the moment between Kaleb and the spider makes us understand how Vanicek creates the parallelism between the spiders and the poor section of society, perhaps that single moment could have been stronger and more intense.
In the third act, however, the direction it remains with the characters despite all the armageddon that is unleashed, perhaps a choice here too dictated by the means, but giving those moments to Kaleb and Manon, the sister, work, also because they don't have that many of them, the scene in the van is good.< 2>
I don't deny that I think there are directors who are more ready for Evil Dead and there are debuts that I prefer, here Vanicek has to work and improve but there seems to be something.