Despite the lurid exploitation title, this is for the most part a grim and weird semi-art-house sci fi movie, more akin to PHASE IV than something like THEM or even THE BIRDS.
BUG benefits greatly from the intense and nervously twitchy central performance of BRADFORD DILLMAN as the scientist who goes off the deep end after his wife is set ablaze by the title critters. The insect photography is well-done and the soundtrack whenever the bugs make an appearance is a prototypically 70's art-house exploitation hybrid--a series of scratches and electronic pops--but it becomes unnervingly effective. The scenes near the end where Bradford Dillman starts performing bizarre experiments upon the BUGs and establishing some sort of contact with them remain potent and eerie and all of the scenes where he finds them crawling loose in his farmhouse are disturbing; If you are willing to forgive some poor special effects near the climax you wont be disappointed by Bug. It is a genuinely creepy movie, one which manages to conjure up a disturbing atmosphere of heat and paranoia and eventually crumbling insanity. Worth a look.
BUG benefits greatly from the intense and nervously twitchy central performance of BRADFORD DILLMAN as the scientist who goes off the deep end after his wife is set ablaze by the title critters. The insect photography is well-done and the soundtrack whenever the bugs make an appearance is a prototypically 70's art-house exploitation hybrid--a series of scratches and electronic pops--but it becomes unnervingly effective. The scenes near the end where Bradford Dillman starts performing bizarre experiments upon the BUGs and establishing some sort of contact with them remain potent and eerie and all of the scenes where he finds them crawling loose in his farmhouse are disturbing; If you are willing to forgive some poor special effects near the climax you wont be disappointed by Bug. It is a genuinely creepy movie, one which manages to conjure up a disturbing atmosphere of heat and paranoia and eventually crumbling insanity. Worth a look.