JohnHowardReid
This movie seems to go on forever. The script starts off promisingly enough, but the writer never seems to know when to stop. He has included enough material for two or three films – not two or three interesting films, mind you, but two rather dull (if shocking and even gruesome on occasions) and basically small-budget shockers. The players, led by Mr. Dillman (I call him, "Mr. Dullman") are an uninteresting lot, and as for the bugs themselves –yuk! True, director Jeannot Szwarc (don't ask me how to pronounce that one!) has worked a whole lot in TV and obviously knows how to shoot fast and with economy, but the film outstays its welcome by a long chalk. I'll admit the bugs themselves are mildly convincing, but even for ardent horror lovers, this sluggish, talky, unconvincing and even rather dull at times scenario out-stays its welcome by a long chalk.
moonspinner55
Final project from famed movie producer William Castle is, sadly, a slapdash insect affair. Based on the book "The Hephaestus Plague" by Thomas Page, who also penned the screenplay with help from Castle, the chills start after an earthquake rocks a small community, bringing mutant roaches up from the earth. The bugs are satisfyingly disgusting, causing fire, panic, and one hysterical death on the former "Brady Bunch" set at Paramount. Aficionados of gross-out cinema will up the rating a notch, while purveyors of camp will enjoy the wooden performances by Bradford Dillman as a local professor and Joanna Miles as his wife. Lots of close-ups of scaly legs and bug guts, yet the production values are disappointingly cheapjack, a depressing reminder of far better days at the Castle horror factory. *1/2 from ****
digitalcool
I saw this in it's original release in 1975 at my friendly neighborhood inner-city theater. As I recall, the coming attractions made it look way better than it turned out to be. A lot of people actually came to see the film based on the trailer, which was shown during another in a series of Bruce Lee "Fists of Fury/Chinese Connection" double features which were always incredibly popular in St. Louis back in those days.Add to this the dearth of Sci-Fi themed films during this time...the period between "Battle For The Planet of the Apes" (1973) and "Star Wars" (1977) were rather lean for the genre. So my friends and I were down at the Lowe's State Theater on a Friday afternoon to eagerly see the premiere of "Bug".As I recall, the bugs seemed to originate close to the red-hot core of the Earth. Which is why, apparently, they could ignite at will. I seem to remember some weird sort of sound they'd make to let the viewer know they were there. And of course, all the action took place in the requisite small town. I haven't seen the film for 33 years, but I remember the audience's reaction (an audience used to watching tough films like "SuperFly", "3 The Hard Way", "The Chinese Mack", etc at this theater)...they laughed and then they left....
Woodyanders
An earthquake unleashes a lethal mutant strain of large prehistoric cockroaches with the ability to start fires. The nasty little critters run amok in a sleepy small desert town. Flaky entomologist James Parmiter (a marvelously manic performance by Bradford Dillman) becomes obsessed with saving them. Director Jeannot Szwarc maintains a snappy pace throughout and ably creates an intriguing creepy atmosphere in the eerie opening third before pulling out all the stops with a gloriously wild'n'wacky conclusion. The admirably sincere acting from a sturdy cast of familiar faces qualifies as another substantial asset: Alan Fudge as Parmiter's brainy colleague Mark Ross, Joanna Miles as Parmiter's lovely wife Carrie, Jesse Vint as rugged farmer Tom Tucker, Patty McCormack as Carrie's best gal pal Sylvia, and Jamie Smith-Jackson as Tom's fretful sister Norma. Moreover, this film's shockingly harsh violence pushes the PG rating to its utmost limit: a cute little kitty cat gets torched, one of the bugs blows up something messy, and both Miles and McCormack meet hideously brutal incendiary ends. Michael Hugo's polished cinematography and Charles Fox's wonky droning synthesizer score are solid and effective. The last film produced by legendary schlockmeister William Castle, "Bug" overall rates as a hugely enjoyable nature-gone-wrong fright feature.
