The Swarm trailer: Netflix releasing French killer locust movie

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

A theatrical release in its native France, director Just Philippot’s feature debut The Swarm (a.k.a. La Nuée) is getting an international release through the Netflix streaming service on August 6th. With a less than a month to go until that date, a trailer has arrived online and can be seen above.

Written by Jérôme Genevray and Franck Victor, The Swarm tells the following story: 

This mother is barely making ends meet, raising and selling locusts — but everything changes when she discovers the locusts have a taste for blood.

Want a little more information? Here’s a longer synopsis:

Virginie lives on a farm with her children Laura (15) and Gaston (7) and raises grasshoppers to be made into flour. Life is hard: money worries and practical problems are piling up, tensions with her kids and neighbours are running high… But everything changes when she discovers the locusts have a taste for blood…

Suliane Brahim, Marie Narbonne, Sofian Khammes, Raphael Romand, Nathalie Boyer, Victor Bonnel, Vincent Deniard, and Christian Bouillette star.

Well, it’s not likely that this movie is going to replace the 1978 killer bee flick The Swarm as the first film that comes to my mind when I hear the title The Swarm, but I’m going to give it a chance. Judging by the trailer, it looks like Virginie willingly feeds the locusts blood for a while, then things get out of hand – a set-up that makes me think of Little Shop of Horrors. Little Shop of Horrors with killer bugs instead of a killer plant. Sure, why not?

Before moving into the feature world with this film, Philippot spent nearly a decade making short films. Genre fans with a Netflix subscription may have previously seen Brahim in the horror / crime series Black Spot, which ran for two seasons, eight episodes each.