Yet another so-so Netflix movie, although this one has some impressive things. Hailing from France, THE SWARM (LA NUÉE; 2020) was put together with a great deal of care and savvy by director Just Philippot (of the impressive 2018 short ACIDE), but ultimately just isn’t very good.
The subject is locusts being bred for sustenance. That’s an interesting idea with resonances that stretch far beyond the screen (it’s very likely how we’ll all be getting our food before too long), but Philippot’s focus is on surface-level scares.
The locust breeder is Virginie, a single mother who corrals the insects in a geodesic dome in the back yard of her country home. Virginie is quite dedicated to the job, to the point that she neglects her children, who grow quite wayward, and throws a fit when a potential client doesn’t pay her what she believes the locusts are worth. She also, when the insects grow listless, allows them to drink her blood, which of course perks them right up. It also causes them to grow to humongous sizes, and necessitates the construction of several greenhouses to contain them.
But when Virginie’s temperamental daughter Laura flies into a rage (one of several) and slashes open a couple of the locust tents the critters escape and devour Virginie’s pet goat. This inspires an increasingly obsessed Virginie to feed them animals, which keeps them growing, but keeping the locusts contained turns out to be a far greater challenge.
The Swarm, 2021
Just Philippot’s major concern, it seems, was naturalism. THE SWARM’s every aspect, from the performances to the art direction, is thoroughly convincing and true-to-life, never feeling the slightest bit stagey or schematic (at least until the CGI-littered final scenes). There are some memorably gross close-ups, such as a locust nibbling at a wart and larvae emerging from a wound, that have a documentary feel, and are far more shocking and upsetting than any of the film’s major set-pieces; an example would be the climactic sight of Virginie covered in locusts, which is evidently supposed to be the height of outrage but won’t seem too outrageous to veteran horror movie viewers.
The film’s major problem is one that afflicts a lot of modern French films whose primary concern is with naturalistic detail: the fact that all the characters are unlikeable. That’s particularly true of the Suliane Brahim essayed protagonist, whose important rages and crying fits may be realistic but do very little for audience identification. The fact that most of the mayhem is directly caused by Virginie’s poor decisions makes it extremely hard for the viewer to offer her any pity, much less empathy.
My advice? Check out the 1978 Irwin Allen film with the same title (see below) which may not be much better than this one but is a lot more fun.
Fun from 1978
Vital Statistics
THE SWARM (LA NUEE)
Netflix/Capricci/The Joker’s Films
Director: Just Philippot
Producers: Manuel Chiche, Thierry Lounas
Screenplay: Jérôme Genevray, Frankc Victor
Cinematography: Romain Carcanade
Editing: Pierre Deschamps
Cast: Suliane Brahim, Sofian Khammes, Marie Narbonne, Raphael Romand, Stéphan Castang, Victor Bonnel, Christian Bouillette, Renan Prévot, Vincent Deniard, Clément Bertani, Guillaume Bursztyn, Thierry Calas, Raphaël Liot, Nathalie Boyer, Barnabé Bernard, Océane Bargeaux