The Swarm (2021) Review – A Slow-Burn French Drama with a Body-Horror Sting
The Swarm: Quick Verdict
The Verdict: An intriguing, though ultimately overlong, exploration of desperation and obsession that sits uncomfortably between domestic drama and Cronenbergian body horror. The Swarm (2021) succeeds in establishing a unique and timely premise, grounding its horror in the visceral reality of a struggling single mother. Suliane Brahim delivers a powerhouse lead performance, convincingly portraying Virginie’s slow descent into an ecological and physical nightmare. While the film’s practical effects and squirm-inducing insect close-ups are technically impressive, the narrative is frequently hampered by significant plot holes and a sluggish middle act. The focus on angsty familial conflict often dilutes the mounting tension, making the eventual horror payoff feel a little too late in the day. This 2.5 star effort is a technical curiosity that will appeal to fans of metaphorical, slow-burn genre cinema, but traditional horror enthusiasts may find it more frustrating than frightening. It is a stylish, yet flawed, study of maternal sacrifice. It is an interesting, though imperfect, watch.
Details: Director: Just Philippot | Cast: Suliane Brahim, Sofian Khammes, Marie Narbonne | Runtime: 1h 41m | Release Date: 2021
Best for: Fans of slow-burn international drama, body-horror enthusiasts, and those who don’t mind a metaphorical approach to genre storytelling.
Worth noting: To ensure the film’s authenticity, the production utilised thousands of live locusts, requiring the actors to become physically accustomed to being covered in the insects.
Where to Watch: Netflix, VOD
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
(A masterfully acted but narratively thin French drama that utilises visceral body-horror tropes to explore the price of obsession, ultimately failing to deliver a truly terrifying experience.)
Welcome to Knockout Horror and to our review of French body-horror movie The Swarm (La nuée).
Highlights
An interesting premise
If you have already watched The Swarm then why not check out our The Swarm Ending Explained article?
The Swarm is a French horror movie starring Suliane Brahim as Virginie, a single mum of two children living in rural France. Virginie and her husband, Nico, ran a farm raising goats up until Nico passed away. Since then Virginie has been attempting to keep things afloat by raising locusts for human consumption.
“Virginie is raising locusts for human consumption, but they aren’t reproducing fast enough. She finds them feeding on her wounds – the reproductive rate explodes, but at what cost?”
The locusts aren’t reproducing at a fast enough rate and the bills are rolling in. An enraged Virginie knocks herself unconscious only to wake finding the locust feeding on the wounds on her arms. The next day Virginie notices that the reproductive rate of the insects has exploded. This could be the answer to her problems but at what cost?
This is a pretty decent backbone for a movie. Despite not being the ideal horror movie premise, the story feels current and very in touch with the modern economical climate. The struggles of a single mother attempting to raise two children and the difficulty of making a decent life for them after the death of a partner is a solid idea. Virginie is easy to root for and fairly sympathetic.
For the most part, the film juggles around moments of struggle as Virginie tries to make ends meet and moments of domestic conflict with her daughter. The locust rearing offers her a solution but it comes at a massive cost. She has to physically feed herself to the locusts. Not too much, of course. She needs something left for cooking dinner and whatnot but enough that they reproduce. This is where the movie’s only scares come in.
Body horror stuff but that’s about it
The horror here comes in the body variety and that’s really about it. It’s a drama at its core but it features some David Cronenberg-esque scenes of wound munching, blood-letting, and general physical carnage. It can be quite effective but I imagine that element of the movie will play second fiddle for most viewers to the insect stuff.
Some of the visuals are a bit creepy. There are lots of long lingering close up shots of locusts that might upset certain viewers. There are a few gory moments here and there, as well. People who hate bugs will have a nightmare of a time with this movie. I imagine it would be fun to watch with someone like this squirming away beside you.
More traditional horror elements, however, are almost completely absent. There is no overall menace or malice. Even worse, the antagonist of the movie, the locust, doesn’t feel particularly threatening. If you are looking for scares you aren’t really going to find them here. There is a ton of padding and bullshit, much of it at the cost of the horror and character development. We spend too much time with less interesting characters while the movie flounders with no direction.
“The horror here comes in the body variety. It features some David Cronenberg-esque scenes of wound munching, blood-letting, and general physical carnage.”
The plot feels a bit farcical when you think about it too much, as well. What’s with Virginie’s reluctance to sell the farm? She is struggling to survive and making virtually no money. This is one of a number of plot holes that serve to undermine The Swarm‘s otherwise interesting story.
Lots of plot holes
This is something that seems to be an issue throughout The Swarm. There are a number of incidents that just seem illogical. Obviously I can’t go into detail in a spoiler free review. However, there were a few moments that left me thinking the writer didn’t know how to progress the story.
Characters react unnaturally to events, they make illogical assumptions that lead to drastic consequences, and every single character has at least one moment in the movie where they act ridiculously histrionic and it always leads to catastrophe. There is very little in the way of nuance and nothing happens subtly.
I would put this down to an inexperienced story teller more than anything else. The Swarm clocks in at a bladder busting 101 minutes so it is not for lack of adequate time to tell the story. Plenty of those minutes are wasted on pointless drama that goes virtually nowhere. Those minutes could have been spent on crafting a more logical story progression. The Swarm is far too long and could benefit from being trimmed by at least 20 minutes.
The Swarm positives
On a more positive note, acting is generally really good. The Netflix version we watched was an English dub and, to be fair, it wasn’t too bad. I have watched a lot of non-English horror and I prefer subtitles as dubs can sometimes miss context of situations and sound a bit strange but this wasn’t too bad. Suliane Brahim, as Virginie, is tasked with carrying the movie due to her being the main character of focus and she does a really good job. Everyone else is decent, there aren’t any particularly bad performances here.
“Sound is used really well in The Swarm to illustrate the growing anxiety and anger of the characters. The volume of the locusts increasing with the characters frustrations is a nice touch.”
Cinematography is pretty decent. There was a lot of soft focus on closeup shots as well as on some of the wider angle shots. This kind of bugged me a bit when it come to re-watching some of the scenes. Obviously working with insects makes sharp focus a little more difficult but the wider angle shots featuring swarms of locust seem to be soft to hide the weak CG.
Sound is used really well in The Swarm to illustrate the growing anxiety and anger of the characters. The volume of the locusts increasing with the characters frustrations is a nice touch. Obviously there is some foley work for up close insect shots but I always find that stuff pretty annoying.
There seems to be a fair amount of practical effects and some of the gore looks really good. The cast obviously had to work around live locust as well. There are ethical concerns here but I hope every precaution was taken to prevent any locust being stood on. I know they are bugs but they have as much right to respect and care as any living creature.
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The Good
- Suliane Brahim: Delivers a compelling and physically demanding lead performance that anchors the film’s more far-fetched elements.
- Body Horror Visuals: The Cronenberg-style scenes of wound-feeding and blood-letting are visceral and genuinely effective.
- Unique Concept: Using locust farming as a metaphor for modern economic desperation is a fresh and interesting take on the “nature strikes back” trope.
The Bad
- Glacial Pacing: At over 100 minutes, the film feels bloated, with far too much time spent on repetitive domestic drama that leads nowhere.
- Logical Failures: The script is littered with plot holes and characters who consistently make baffling, histrionic decisions.
- Lack of Menace: Despite the buildup, the locusts never feel like a truly frightening antagonist, undermining the film’s horror credentials.
The Ugly: The Blood-Letting. A sequence where the protagonist willingly feeds her own blood to the swarm is a stomach-turning highlight of the film’s practical effects.
Should You Watch The Swarm?
Only if you value atmosphere and acting over a tight narrative. It is a 2.5 star film that works better as a character study of a grieving mother than it does as a horror movie. If you appreciate the technical craft of international cinema and don’t mind a very slow burn, there is some value here. However, most horror fans will find the lack of scares and the frustrating plot holes a major barrier. It is an intelligent but ultimately unsatisfying exercise in genre-bending.
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