Kaleb is an amateur herpetologist and when he sees an unusual spider amongst the stock of an unlicensed dealer he buys it and brings it home for his collection.
No good will come of this.
CW: absolutely not for arachnophobes or anybody the slightest bit uncomfortable with creepy crawlies
Sébastien Vaniček does not mess about with this. You want spider based jump scares? We got you fam!
The number and size of the spiders grows prodigiously as this goes on but somehow remains fresh as every encounter is slightly different. Whether it's chasing a single spider in a bathroom with a glass and a postcard or negotiating a corridor completely shrouded in web the stakes seem to work every time. I cackled with glee with every sudden flurry of spidery motion and given what I assume was a modest budget the visual/creature effects team deliver beyond expectations.
More importantly the group of characters at the centre of this have real presence and aren't just archetypes there to meet their doom so you get to know and care about them. All the cast are great and there's an interesting supporting cast of residents caught up in the infestation too. It's not just the core players on screen, although they obviously dominate things, which is a thing a lot of smaller movies go for and ends up making them feel too sparse.
8/10 but clearly one for the creature feature fans. It seems Vaniček has been selected for an upcoming Evil Dead project and if they can bring this kind of taut direction to it that could be great. In a way this sort of reminded me of the excellent Evil Dead Rise, but with spiders.