(thank you, Trash Trailers!) 

Even though it was released two full weeks before Stephen Spielberg’s JAWS, the late William Castle’s final production, BUG was somewhat destined to fail. Despite some fine direction by Jeannot Szwarc and an intense performance as Bradford Dillman starring as the doomed Dr. James Parminter and plenty of startling deaths (well, startling to an 11-year old me), the film probably freaked too many people out with its swarms of over-sized fire-starting cockroaches causing all sorts of flaming mayhem throughout a small town after they start popping up after an earthquake.

What makes the film work as a nice horror/sci-fi blend is the sheer craziness of the insects from hell being able to start fires anywhere they crawled (which again, leads to some nasty demises throughout the flick) and Parminter’s supremely stuborn insistence on tampering with them even more with his research.

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