Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on November 2009

©2008 Icon Distribution, LLC.

This little comedy-horror creature feature is not a great movie. But I enjoyed it more than the ’tweener vampire installment, the Spanish slasher, or the lame romantic comedy that also open this week. Clearly made on a budget and edited with a chainsaw, Infestation still gets a lot of yucks for the bucks. If the SFX aren’t exactly cutting-edge, they’re good enough, and you gotta love the Japanese title: Big Bugs Panic! It starts off moments after an alien invasion by, yes, big bugs that have wrapped everyone in a kind of spider webbing, presumably for later consumption. It’s up to an office slacker and a motley band of survivors that he unwebs to find and slay the Queen and save the planet. Chris Marquette nicely walks the cusp between geekiness and promise as the hero, initially more interested in scoring points with hottie gal pal Brooke Nevin than doing save-the-world stuff. And no cheapie with Ray Wise in it can be all bad. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, the acting is adequate, and the writing is original, at least within the limits of the genre. Good B-movie fun.