The Swarm Review: The Two Leading Actresses Hold The Heart Of The Film Without Being Caricatured | La nuée

Director: Just Philippot

Starring: Suliane Brahim, Sofian Khammes, Marie Narbonne

Ratings: 3 Three Stars [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Do you remember that famous line pronounced by John Belushi in The Blues Brothers? “The grasshoppers!”, The character yelled trying to find justification for his actions. A joke that immediately came to mind and that we decided to quote to start our review of The Swarm, a film available on Netflix that presents, as the title promises, very many grasshoppers. Advertised as a scary horror (as it is described on the official page of the streaming platform’s catalog), this French film directed by Just Philippot, despite a promising idea, does not choose to really belong to that genre. With a staid pace, The Swarm is definitely a drama that focuses on a mother’s obsession with her grasshopper herd to the point of sacrificing family relationships.

Story and Review

Virginie is a single mother who lives with her two children, the eldest Laura and the youngest Kevin, in a country house. Ideal environment where you can start breeding grasshoppers and start your own business. Success is slow in coming, however, and in full economic difficulty, Virginie will begin to feel a real obsession for her breeding, so much so that she cares less and less about her real family. The two children suffer from the absence of their mother, they find it hard to bond with their peers who ironize about their mother’s “madness”. Madness that becomes real when Virginie discovers that, by giving blood to the grasshoppers, they begin to reproduce more quickly, finally starting the economic return that our protagonist expected.

The premises are those of a psychological horror capable of investigating the obsession of a mother who is sacrificing herself for the sake of her children and in which, sometimes, one perceives the sensation of the unpredictable threat of the swarm, ever more numerous and always more ravenous. But Just Philippot’s interest is not in making a real horror movie. Locking itself in the dynamics of human drama, The Swarm is, for most of its 100-minute duration, a real film about the dysfunctional family, the parent / child relationship, the misunderstanding between the two generations and the difficulty of constituting one. real bond. There are some very short moments in which a few drops of blood are shown and in which you focus slightly more on the visual shock. One scene in particular that has to do with tweezers could impress the most sensitive viewer, especially because it comes almost free of charge within the film’s economy.

The most horrifying dimension of the story is released in the last ten minutes of the film, finally giving satisfaction to those who would have expected a completely different film. However, it must be emphasized that, beyond some stronger images, the film does not focus on explicit images, preferring to always focus on the more intimate dimension of the story. The result is a film whose final metaphor is so highlighted that it weakens it. The most horrifying dimension of the story is released in the last ten minutes of the film, finally giving satisfaction to those who would have expected a completely different film. However, it must be emphasized that, beyond some stronger images, the film does not focus on explicit images, preferring to always focus on the more intimate dimension of the story. The result is a film whose final metaphor is so highlighted that it weakens it. The most horrifying dimension of the story is released in the last ten minutes of the film, finally giving satisfaction to those who would have expected a completely different film. However, it must be emphasized that, beyond some stronger images, the film does not focus on explicit images, preferring to always focus on the more intimate dimension of the story. The result is a film whose final metaphor is so highlighted that it weakens it.

A DRAMATIC RHYTHM

Thanks to a really staid pace, the film seems to want to tell very little in a longer duration than expected. With a simple writing, in which the characters do not complete a real path but, in a crystalline way, confirm the characters with which they were presented, The swarm fails to really involve the viewer. It could be argued that the absence of twists is a continuous accumulation of tension and suspense in view of the final act, but there is no perceived change of atmosphere, a growing expectation in view of a revolution and, even when history seems to open to interesting future developments, soon we are back to the starting point. This is an important obstacle, which unbalances the film, displeasing the spectators who expected anything else (and we remember it: we cannot fail to consider the way in which a product in a streaming platform is described and advertised as important, net of its true nature).

Positive note, the cast of protagonists, especially the actresses: Suliane Brahim in the role of Virginie knows how to bring a tormented and obsessed character without being excessive; Marie Narbonne, on the other hand, shows the identity crisis of a motherless teenager who just wants some more attention. Not surprisingly, in the very end, the film will focus on their relationship, ending exactly after the resolution of the greatest conflict in history. Suliane Brahim as Virginie knows how to bring a haunted and obsessed character without being excessive; Marie Narbonne, on the other hand, shows the identity crisis of a motherless teenager who just wants some more attention. Not surprisingly, in the very end, the film will focus on their relationship, ending exactly after the resolution of the greatest conflict in history. Suliane Brahim as Virginie knows how to bring a haunted and obsessed character without being excessive; Marie Narbonne, on the other hand, shows the identity crisis of a motherless teenager who just wants some more attention. Not surprisingly, in the very end, the film will focus on their relationship, ending exactly after the resolution of the greatest conflict in history.

The Swarm Review: The Last Words

At the conclusion of our review of The Swarm we cannot consider the film completely successful. For most of its generous duration it is a dramatic film about the mother / children relationship and then let off steam in the final minutes by re-entering a little more into the dynamics of horror films, a genre with which it is presented and which risks misleading the viewer. This union of different registers, however, fails to communicate there is neither a crescendo of expectation and tension nor a certain type of evolution in the characters, interested in completing their conflicts. On the other hand, the work of the cast is noteworthy, with a note of respect for the two protagonists, the real heart of the film.