Bug (1975)

Just perfect...

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Fantastic!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Reading an old issue of UK film mag Empire,I Checked the "archive" pages,and spotted a review for William Castle's final "shock Horror." Previously having only seen his famous House on Haunted Hill,I decided that it was the perfect time to see Castle build his ant (bug) kingdom.The plot:Shaken by being caught in the middle of an earthquake, a town finds itself surrounded by mutant bugs,who can unleash fire that murders animals and people.Thanks to the low air pressure on the Earth's surface most of the bugs die. Wanting to learn more about the bugs, Prof. James Parmiter keeps some of them alive in storage units. Taking them to an isolated location for research, Parmiter begins to find his own mind bugging him.View on the film:Sliding out of Thomas Page's book,the screenplay by Page and producer/cameo actor William Castle slime's between a Disaster Movie and a creepy Sci-Fi Creature Feature. Setting the bed bugs on fire,the writers send the critters flying into a deliciously bonkers atmosphere,where the stupidity folks usually show in this genre is given an extra push by the people of the town getting in situations with the bugs that is all their own fault! Leaving behind some of Castle's famous "shock & awe" antics for the second half,the writers lock James Parmiter in for an unexpectedly eerie,slow-burn Sci-Fi Horror,that takes advantage of the "last man on earth" setting to turn the bugs (who are given sex scenes!) into objects of paranoia,closing in on James ParmiterGrabbing handfuls of the bugs, director Jeannot Szwarc and cinematographer Michel Hugo wrap the film in Charles Fox's nerve- shredding synch score moving in time with the brash primary colours of the bug attacks. Biting into everything (including a poor cat) Szwarc makes everyone be hilariously stupid,with even the most basic safety options (no gloves!) being something that does distract from the unfolding disaster. Stuck in a small room on his own, Bradford Dillman gives an excellent performance as James Parmiter,whose closeness with the bugs Dillman uses to sink Parmiter into a pit of madness,as he becomes a bug for the bugs.

I'm a little surprised that this movie has received a somewhat low score. I would think that at least a 6.0 would be fair. Never the less, since others cannot see the value in this film, I will put my own two sense in. Bug (1975) is a movie that starts out simply enough with a woman who is late to church and trying not to disturb anyone as she sits down. However, a few minutes into the service, a terrible earthquake occurs that causes a large crack to open in the earth. Not long after this, random fires begin to occur through out town and it soon becomes apparent that strange bugs from the opening are causing the them. Enters Dr. Parimeter, who in an attempt to study them, ends up breeding one of the bugs with a regular cockroach. The result is something far worse than what was originally the problem. The bugs become more intelligent, discover a preference for raw meat, and ultimately drive our doctor into madness. I must mention the terrific performance of Bradford Dillman as Dr.Parimeter who gives a convincing performance of a man becoming unhinged. This is one of those films that in addition to being entertaining, also has an important lesson underneath the surface; when you interfere with mother nature, she has a way of getting back on you. A pretty cleaver film with a great ending. If you get the chance, check out sometime online.

BUG is a truly awful film.The "story" is a about a scientist who studies some underground bugs who turn up after an earthquake opens a small fissure in the desert. The scientist studies them and realizes that they're intelligent and can also burn people. A few (and I really mean a "few") people fall victim to these bugs. When a "queen" ends up in the fissure, the bugs start flying, burns the scientist who conveniently ends up in the fissure, which subsequently gets covered up again, leaving no trace of the bugs behind. That's it.It spends a slow 99 minutes to expand on a not so complex story (one man vs big pyro-cockroaches) and then effectively doesn't go anywhere with a climax that kills its only main character and the potentially cool idea of killer incendiary bugs. You basically spend 99 minutes with a single unlikeable character, in a grubby surrounding along with some not too convincing insects, all for nothing. Not scary, not suspenseful, not fascinating in any way, shape or form. Had this been a 30 minutes Twilight Zone episode, it would have been fine but for a feature film, it's painfully flat and dreadful. I can barely describe it as a movie. It's a micro-movie.If you want to see a fantastic "man vs bug" story, check out PHASE IV. Now that's a brilliant movie to be reckon with.

I saw this in it's original release in 1975 at my friendly neighborhood inner-city theater. As I recall, the coming attractions made it look way better than it turned out to be. A lot of people actually came to see the film based on the trailer, which was shown during another in a series of Bruce Lee "Fists of Fury/Chinese Connection" double features which were always incredibly popular in St. Louis back in those days.Add to this the dearth of Sci-Fi themed films during this time...the period between "Battle For The Planet of the Apes" (1973) and "Star Wars" (1977) were rather lean for the genre. So my friends and I were down at the Lowe's State Theater on a Friday afternoon to eagerly see the premiere of "Bug".As I recall, the bugs seemed to originate close to the red-hot core of the Earth. Which is why, apparently, they could ignite at will. I seem to remember some weird sort of sound they'd make to let the viewer know they were there. And of course, all the action took place in the requisite small town. I haven't seen the film for 33 years, but I remember the audience's reaction (an audience used to watching tough films like "SuperFly", "3 The Hard Way", "The Chinese Mack", etc at this theater)...they laughed and then they left....