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Posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 21:09:35 GMT by: agentorange
Posted under: post apocalyptic movie review tv scifi

Year: 2009
Directors: Kyle Rankin
Writers: Kyle Rankin
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: agentorange
Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Yep, I'm one hell of a lucky film fan. I've seen Kyle Rankin's glorious creature-feature, Infestation, and get the honor of being the first person online (anywhere?) to review it. But, you know what? There's someone out there who you should envy more than me. I know, I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. It's that impressionable 10 year old kid, tuning in to SyFy on August 8, 2009 and getting his mushy brain converted into a cult-worshiping genre film fanatic for the rest of his natural life.

You know what I'm talking about because it happened to all of us at one time or another. Whether it was the first time you saw the lightsabers of Star Wars, the undead in Romero's "Dead" films or - perhaps even more apropos to this review - witnessed the blending of horror and comedy in Tremors, there was one film that turned you from a normal kid into a lustful genre junkie, willing to pillage even the most passed over discount bins in search of another taste of that singular cinematic thrill. Infestation, with its glorious PG-13 sensibilities, likable characters, humor and penchant for exploding bug guts will no doubt be "that movie" for a whole new generation of would-be B-movie misfits. So listen to your uncle AO kids. Enjoy it now, 'cause you only get one first time.

I hope that by now you've all seen the fantastic trailer that dropped back in February, but if you haven't I'll run through the plot for you. Twenty-something call center drone, Cooper (Chris Marquette), wakes up in a cocoon of webbing on the floor by his cubical one day. After escaping his bonds and fighting off a giant mutant beetle, he discovers that the entire world is in the process of being enslaved by giant bugs. After waking up a few others, the small team of survivors concoct a plan to high-tail it to his retired military father's home to wall up in his bomb shelter until the whole thing blows over. Along the way, a multitude of bugs explode, bad actors get run over by trucks and Cooper must decide between playing it safe like he's always done, or saving Sara (Brooke Nevin), the girl who might just be "the one" (as in girlfirend the one, not Neo "chosen one" the one).



A huge part of Infestation's charm comes from its gleeful pairing of PG-13 creature comedies like Tremors and Eight Legged Freaks!, with the awkward-guy indie comedy. In fact, it shares far less in common with gooey, hard-R flicks like James Gunn's Slither or John Gulager's Feast then you might expect. Those films are awesome too (God bless them), but Infestation just isn't that kind of movie. It's far too happy reveling in harmless, gross-out fun and character hijinx to be really all that scary.

Even though the film was made on an indie budget, the FX look pretty darn stellar. Instead of going for a photo-real look with the bugs, the filmmakers decided to make them look like giant versions of something rubber you might get out of a supermarket vending machine. This gives the bugs a schlocky, 50s nuclear- experiment-gone-wrong kind of Them quality that, again, makes the film more fun than really scary. If I had any complaint about the bugs it might be that there needed to be a couple more variations that pop up now and again. There's mostly just ones that fly, ones that don't and a queen.



One thing I should mention is that comedic newcomer Chris Marquette completely carries this film. I mean, completely. It's almost a one man show at times so I guess if you don't like his quirky, slacker acting style it could be a deal breaker for you. You'll probably remember Marquette as the friend who has cancer in the ensemble Star Wars comedy Fanboys, but here he channels all the charm of a sardonic young John Cusack to prove he's more than capable of breaking into the leading man game. The whole thing really hinges on this character and I personally think that without Marquette's comedic presence the film would have flatlined big time. The other performance of note is Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Robocop) who once again proves his versatility by giving a hilarious performance as Cooper's overbearing father.

As I stated above, the film is set to premiere on SyFy on August 8, 2009 so I heartily recommend setting your TiVo, DVR, VCR or what-have-you or just tuning in and enjoying some post-apocalyptic bug-brained fun. You won't regret it.

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