Cooper (Chris Marquette) works as a really bad telemarketer, so he gets called into his boss’s office. His boss, Maureen (Deborah Geffner), fires him for being late and for being an all-around screw up. At that moment there is a high-pitched shrieking sound and Cooper passes out. When he wakes up, he is shrouded in something similar to a spider’s web, and several days have passed. All around him are other people cocooned in webs and there are giant alien beetles feeding off the cocooned people. He is attacked by one of them but manages to escape. He finds Maureen, also covered in webbing and wakes her up. Maureen says her daughter, Sara (Brooke Nevin), was outside in her car waiting for her.
Outside Cooper finds Sara and removes her webbing. Just then a giant flying insect swoops down and grabs Maureen. Other giant beetles attack. Cooper and Sara escape and run into a nearby restaurant by distracting the bugs with a car alarm. Inside the restaurant are other cocooned people. Sara unwraps and wakes up everyone in the restaurant. Two of the men try to escape in a truck but are attacked and killed. Another person, Albert (Wesley Thompson) is bitten. In the distance they see what looks like a giant nest.
The gang decides to start the next day for the nearby Air Force base. On the way they make stops so that people can check on their loved ones. Cindy (Kinsey Packard) wants to check on her brother Chad (Mike Straub). When they get to Chad’s house, they find that Chad has turned into an insect hybrid and is collecting cocoons for the other insects. Albert and his son Hugo (E. Quincy Sloan) kill Chad. Everyone makes their way toward Cooper’s house because his father Ethan (Ray Wise) has a fallout shelter. On the way, Cindy gets killed and Sara gets kidnapped by the bugs.
The only ones left now are Cooper, Albert and Hugo. They make it to Ethan’s house but Albert, having been bitten, turns into one of the insect hybrids. After he is killed, Cooper decides to go to the nest and try to save Sara, not even knowing if she is still alive. Ethan tries to dissuade him, but Cooper, having fallen in love with Sara, is determined to enter the nest.
“Infestation” was released in 2009 and was written and directed by Kyle Rankin. It is an American horror comedy film and one of the better Syfy channel films.
With some decent acting, special effects and humor, the film is a fast moving and entertaining big bug movie. There are three types of insects, the beetle, the wasp and the spider/human hybrid. All done quite well, both the rubber ones as well as the CGI versions. Plus, there are a lot of them. The action is pretty much nonstop. Ray Wise is always fun to see, and he plays off Christopher Marquette perfectly.
For a low budget film, it’s done quite well. I recommend it highly.
The movie was produced by Icon Films. Director Rankin and actor Marquette signed a three-picture deal with them, leading people to believe there may be at least one sequel in the future. So far, however, none have been forthcoming.