The combination of horror and comedy has been one of the premiere "go to" mash-ups over the past few decades. Some — like Eight Legged Freaks -- fail to deliver on any large scale, while others win over legions of fans and go on to be cult favorites. For good examples of the genre, look no further than Evil Dead II, Dead Alive, and the recent Shawn of the Dead. Now comes Infestation, a film which seeks to tread similar ground. It does turn out to be an entertaining movie, but I doubt that it will gain the same status of the combo-genres high water marks. I do suspect that it will gather a select group of fans while others will fail to see the point. I ultimately fall towards to the former, although I doubt it will ever be my go to movie for horror comedy.
As the film opens, we catch up with Cooper (Christopher Marquette of Fanboys and Freddy vs. Jason) who is running late for work. He runs into the office, quickly slips into his cubicle, and immediately pretends to be on the phone as he gets word that the boss wants to see him. We all know how this goes, he goes in, tries to worm his way out of trouble, and she fires him.
Now, this is where things begin to get interesting. You see, this opening bit is not really the story at all, but does a couple of things for us. First, it introduces us to out hero, Cooper, the character with which we will be spending nearly every moment. Second, it introduces him as something of a slacker who is not living up to his potential, thus beginning an arc of a young man finding his way and discovering purpose and meaning in his life. Yes, perhaps a lofty goal, but quite a common one.
The interesting moment comes just after the firing, you hear a loud noise, Cooper and his now former boss grab their ears and crumple to floor as the screen goes black. Moments later, the lights come up, and everyone in the office is covered in white webbing. One web begins to move and Cooper emerges from it. Within moments he is attacked by a giant bug that is intent on rewebbing our hero. Fortunately, our slacker may be a little more resourceful than we initially thought.
Anyway, he rips the webbing off a few people and they wake up from their web-induced slumbers. They immediately try to figure out what is going on, find more bugs around outside and attempt to hash out a plan.
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