Infested

Night of the Living Dead meets The Big Chill meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets Lord of the Flies meets a Power Ranger and Lt. Paris, yeah, that pretty much covers it, oh yeah, and weird soundtrack featuring Trio's Da Da Da and some Eddie Money? A LOT of different elements meet and mix, some hot babes, one partially naked, the Pink Ranger teases us with a shower scene, and a plot about possibly mutated flies gives us some cool dead bodies, a bit of gore, and a case of the heeby jeebies the nest time a fly lands on you... GREAT B-movie here, and the in-joke regarding Amy Jo Johnson (why hasn't anyone offered her a GOOD part?) is priceless.....worth the rental

"Infested" tries to do too much, and derails itself in the process. It's main crime is a dependence on easy option, post-modern references to other films to entertain Generation X video renters. This gets tired very quickly and soon takes on the air of "rip-off" rather than "homage". It intends a kitsch "so bad its good" appeal, but ends up just being bad.

There is some good acting to be found however, from actors who clearly got the joke and entered into the spirit of the affair. It's not enough though - shoddy direction, lazy camerawork and an overall atmosphere of "naffness" are too strong to be overcome.

Also, as in "Night of the Lepus", the monster animals just aren't a frightening concept at all. Flies! What a stupid idea! Not even wasps or bees, but flies. I'm sure I'm not alone in having never shivered at the thought of a blue-bottle... It also feels like a lame monster was chosen as some kind of joke, but it's about as funny as it is scary.

I'm afraid, "Infested" fails to become a "beer-and-a-joint-laugh-at-the-lame-film" experience. I think it tries too hard. It suffers from the same problem as Tarantino's "Kill Bill Vol.1" in that you just end up wishing you'd watched one of the films it rips off instead.

If you gave a group of teenagers a camcorder, they could accurately recreate about 90% of this movie. Seriously. Shot on digital video, the movie looks absolutely threadbare, not helped by the fact that it all seems filmed on location with nothing added in the scene. The first third of the movie is, in fact, nothing more than actors standing and talking around outside or inside the house. Not just cheap, but BORING.

And then when the effects come in... oh dear. Even your average weekly dramatic TV series, if it ever uses CGI, will have it looking better than these CGI effects. Gore effects are at a minimum, though I must admit one effect concerning a leg looked both gruesome and pretty convincing.

The movie is not just boring - it is unbelievably STUPID. Characters keep doing things in the dumbest way possible, when anyone with some common sense probably wouldn't have taken long to get out the situation. These are not just stupid characters - they are ANNOYING characters. Not one of them is the least bit likable. They are especially unbearable when the movie decides to be humorous. Not only are they not funny, they are even more painful to observe.

What happened to Zach Galligan? Is he really that hard up for cash? Well, considering he was arrested for shoplifting not long ago from the date I write this... maybe he is.

Well, if you like a bad plot, annoying characters, and a ton of bad CGI effects you might enjoy this. Personally i almost fell asleep while watching it. The story is uneven and never really explains anything. It's decent for a late night viewing if you're looking for something really cheesy. But there are quite a few better "Bug Horror" movies out there than this one. 4 stars out of 10.

This movie is fantastic. With the endless straight to video Creature Features, from the amazing (Shark Attack 3) to the lame

(Sasquatch) we've now entered the new b-movie generation. Sure, we don't have drive ins, but that ain't stopping filmmakers from making some of the greatest b-flicks since the 70s, and leading the pack so far is Infested. Smart, funny and never boring, it's shocking that this was not even considered for a theatrical release when junk like Cabin Fever is gaining a cult audience. On the bright side though, straight to video is not such a bad

place to be nowadays. So, call up your thirty something friends, make popcorn and you can all sit back and enjoy the masterpiece Infested. Then kill them all.