Direction: Just Philippot
Country: France
The Swarm, the directorial debut of 39-year-old French filmmaker Just Philippot, causes some friction with a tale that transitions from innocuous suspense to a really sad tragedy. Even flawed, this reasonably disturbing horror film is worth a walk to the theater, presenting some ferocious images supported by a decent rural drama.
The screenplay by Jérôme Genevray - who came up with the original idea - and Franck Victor, centers on a single mother, Virginie Hebrard (Suliane Brahim), who starts breeding edible locusts to save her farm from bankruptcy. Locusts are known for causing damage to crops but, in the present case, they go after flesh and blood during a deadly infestation.
The Swarm’s female characters - Virginie and her dissatisfied daughter Laura (Marie Narbonne) - demonstrate to have a similar impulsive behavior, but the mother stretches it into insanity, sacrificing herself in bizarre ways as a means of financial stability. The film also says something about contemporary farming.
It’s well done, and the comparisons with Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and David Cronenberg’s disturbing oddities are understandable, even if the film doesn’t really reach those superior levels. It’s one of those examples where the message and the execution go hand-in-hand with appreciable results.
