"The Nest" is quite a popular film name and numerous movies have used the title in recent memory; this one has the benefit of having horror mainstay Dee Wallace ("Cujo," "The Howling") in its cast. As the movie opens, parents Beth (Sarah Navratil) and Jack (Kevin Patrick Murphy) are at a yard sale with their young daughter Meg (Maple Suttles) in tow. Turns out the family has just moved and Meg is not taking it well and in an attempt to soothe her a bit the folks buy her a cute, seemingly benign stuffed bear at the sale. Meg quickly becomes attached to the bear, overly so, but at first that doesn't seem to be a problem. But then the little girl starts acting strange and there is a shot of the bear where it seems to be breathing. Then the weirdness really kicks in; Meg is with her dad in his workshop, clutching the bear which shoots a spider-looking thing at dad. Now infected with whatever it is, dad starts acting weird too. Wallace plays Marisa, a family friend and a sort of grandmotherly type, on hand to help the family adjust, and initially she seems to be doing just that. But then Marisa starts communicating with Jack in that "insect chatter" that is often heard in films about aliens, and the viewer now knows that not much is as it seems. Meanwhile mom Beth is sensing all this more than witnessing it and she is teetering on the edge of once again taking refuge in the pills that she was once addicted to. Meg doesn't want to go to school and she seriously freaks out her school counselor; back at home Beth falls down the stairs, apparently after tripping over the stuffie. Director Suttles proves adept here at keeping the suspense level high and while Maple Suttles is the real star of the show, it is a pure delight to see Wallace back in action, especially when she's chattering like some insect from hell. Available on demand, on DVD and as a digital download.
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