BUG
PLOT-After an earthquake, big fire-spitting roaches prey on the inhabitants of a small town.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH IT-This 1975 critical disaster was the last movie produced by the great William Castle (who sadly died 2 years later), and it's better than you might expect. In fact, if you're even the least bit afraid or grossed out by roaches, you run a definite risk of getting freaked out while watching this. After all, Castle insisted on using real live bugs, and they're absolutuely everywhere. Where the hell they found such large, creepy looking roaches is beyond me, maybe in the Amazon jungles or something. Either way, they end up killing people by setting them on fire or chewing them up! That's right, not only do the bugs have the amazing ability to start fires, but they like red meat too. And, when a scientist becomes obsessed with breeding the yucky little bastards, they end up with the ability to fly as well! Cool. The only bad thing is that this movie has yet to be restored, so it's a bad-looking tape right now. Most of the image is washed out or blown away entirely. I had to turn the brightness all the way down just to watch it. But, if you're looking to get the creepy-crawlies, check this masterpiece out as soon as possible.
MEMORABLE SCENES-The scientist, who's experimenting on the bugs, is attacked by them while he's asleep. They escape their cage and crawl on his chest, immediately drawing blood as they begin to feast on his skin. He wakes up, jumps out of bed, and madly dances around trying to knock them all off his body. Very funny shit indeed, but also freaky as hell.
NOTES-William Castle, the P.T. Barnum of filmmaking, was famous for coming up with ingenious marketing gimmicks to promote his movies, which include the cult classics THE TINGLER, HOMICIDAL, MACABRE, 13 GHOSTS, and HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL. In the final chapter of his (now out-of print) autobiography STEP RIGHT UP! I'M GONNA SCARE THE PANTS OFF AMERICA, he writes about how he insured Hercules, one of the big roaches, for $10,000. He then took the bug on a promotional tour with him. Unfortunately, his last gimmick, installing mini windshield wipers on theater seats to brush the audience's legs as they watched BUG, was refused by theater owners and never was used. Why? The movie, they insisted, was scary enough!