I saw "Infested" and while the acting was great, the story and execution left a lot to be desired. No gory death scenes, no graphic violence at all, and the worst offender; "black blood" (where they hide the blood in dark scenes or make it look like black ink to not offend the more sensitive and fragile viewers). I thought the movie was severely hindered by keeping things tame and relatively issue free for teh sake for a wider audience, but a movie about killer spiders, one of the most vicious arachnids out there, needs to be over the top with violence and graphic gore. While this movie also fails at this department, it made up for it by being enjoyable throughout and having some good dynamics between the characters. It was definitely another missed opportunity, and I don't understand why such movies are being limited in their scope. It's truly baffling how you will release a film that will probably be forgotten in a few weeks instead of going all out and giving people something they will remember. I want someone to do for spiders that Terrifier 2 did for Clowns.
A spider is a creature with the strength of several times its body weight, can create powerful webs and liquefy the internal organs of its prey before consuming it. Why is it so hard to show a spider doing this in a serious film, to a human or other animal? In this movie it's an extraterrestrial spider, but nothing about it conveyed this. No extra leg, no glowing butt. So much could have been doing with an alien spider, that I fail to truly comprehend how the creative team just settled on "It gets bigger as it eats". How creatively bankrupt! I would have made the spider capable of turning other creatures into eight legged freaks, a cat, dog, even the baby would have gotten the treatment. Now THAT would have been a movie. Instead we got the most basic horror/comedy you could possibly muster with such a premise, and really, that's why this film fails for me (even though I enjoyed it for the most part).
The tone of film was all over the place, the actual spiders weren't featured nearly as much as I though and the little girl would have been better if it were a boy, but aside from that, this movie really doesn't have much going for it. It's enjoyable sure, but a lot of things are fun and then you never think of them ever again. That is this film.
A fun ride with a lot of issues that you probably won't remember a single detail about in a years time. Truly wasted potential.