Bug (1975)
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B-
The same year Steven Spielberg gave us Jaws, the
man who would direct the sequel, Jeannot Szwarc, gave us Bug. Unlike the mix of uplifting moments and
terror Spielberg gave us in the Alfred Hitchcock mode, the other 1975 natural
predator thriller stars with an earthquake and quickly leads to the arrival of
an insect unheard of.
This beetle-like creature can handle immense pressure,
come from deep underground and have the odd ability to start fires. They also love to eat ashes! First, vehicles blow up, but soon, animals
and people are the targets of their arrival.
One big fan and scientist in the study of insects (Bradford Dillman)
happens to pick up on this very early.
He even decides to start secretly experimenting with them, but obsession
begins to overtake him and the results will just make things more terrifying.
Here, we get a good, tight B-movie that delivers on the
creepiness and Dillman manages to get as creepy as the insects themselves. There is some of the “stupid Horror people”
syndrome going on that would have you yell at the screen for the victims to
watch out, but they are usually smarter than what you would get in the
reactionary slasher films of the 1980s, so there is more impact to such
scenes. William Castle and Thomas page
co-wrote the screenplay, based on Page’s book The Hephaestus Plague and
is one of those rare late Horror films form Castle that played it
straight. This would be the last film
in Castle’s great career, usually known for outrageous gimmicks. That ended by the mid-1960s with the likes
of Rosemary’s Baby and Bug would be his last film. He went out with a good one.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image looks very good
for its age, with good color and clarity.
Cinematographer Michael Hugo, A.S.C., delivers the perfect balance of
natural, quite, safe surroundings and darker footage of the building
horror. Credit to those who came up
with the interesting microphotography and designs of the bugs. No digital used whatsoever and creepy as
anything. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is
not bad and Charles Fox’s electronic score holds up very well and is still on
the creepy side, even if a few moments show their age. This was a time such scores were still experimental
and in the zone between music and sound effects. I wonder if it had been recorded in stereo. There are no extras.
Szwarc had already directed some of the better episodes of
Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, and police dramas like Kojak, It
Takes A Thief, Ironside, Baretta, Toma, the original Columbo
and The Rockford Files. More
recently, he returned to that territory with episodes of CSI. Though not always on target, he has a great
knack for picking interesting projects.
Bug is one of his best.
- Nicholas Sheffo
