Review: Bug


Ashley Judd, a troubled and substance abusing bartender at a lesbian bar hooks up with brooding but gentle-natured oddball Michael Shannon in her crappy motel room. She’s still troubled by the disappearance of her son in a supermarket years ago, and is fearful of her mean and abusive husband Harry Connick Jr., whom she suspects of making nuisance phone calls to intimidate her. Shannon, meanwhile, is an AWOL war vet who claims to have been used as a guinea pig in US government experiments, and is in constant fear of capture by government agents. The two become lovers, two lonely and mistreated people finding peace in each other’s arms. But then Shannon notices the bugs...they’re beneath his skin...they’re on the bed sheets...they’re everywhere! Or are they?



Exceedingly creepy, slightly stagy, slow-paced psychological horror film from William Friedkin (“The Exorcist” and the landmark police actioner “The French Connection”), is one of the uneven director’s better films, so long as you’re not expecting a schlocky giant bug film as suggested by the title. Judd and Shannon are terrific, with the former having one truly frightening monologue towards the end, and the latter being just a shade creepy enough yet also just normal enough, to make us constantly unsure of whether he is to be trusted or not. Just because the audience isn’t shown the bugs, doesn’t mean they’re not there. Or that he’s lying. Connick, meanwhile, manages to outdo the creep act he essayed over ten years ago in “Copycat”, playing yet another scumbag.



This one is a slow burner but really stays with you afterwards, and changes gears in a manner that is not at all cheating or jarring. Excellent sound design, too. The screenplay is by Tracy Letts (of the famed Steppenwolf Theatre), from his play, in which Shannon starred.



Rating: B-

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