By Su-kim Lee
The mysterious Peter (Michael Shannon) drags the pathetic Agnes (Ashley Judd) inexorably down the short, dark tunnel of his bloody and bug-ridden schizophrenic delusions. Hilarity ensues.
Adapted for the screen by Tracy Letts from her own play and directed by the legendary William Friedkin, BUG builds tension upon tension to what should be a real screamer of a climax, but ultimately delivers a flatulent letdown that had the audience booing and hissing as the credits rolled.
You've gotta be concerned when an ad campaign has to go back more than 30 years to cite a director’s biggest successes. But the ploy seemed to work, considering the majority of moviegoers (including myself) don’t have the retention capabilities to remember such stinkers as JADE, THE GUARDIAN or THE HUNTED.
Peter thinks the military has infected him with blood-sucking aphids and eventually convinces Agnes that she has them too. They’re in their blood. They’re in their hair. They’re everywhere, in fact, except on the screen. We don’t even get a Kafka-esque dream sequence for our trouble.
I have to give proper credit to the tiny cast that convincingly and shudderingly conveys the tsunami surge of rising paranoia, especially Judd and Shannon (reprising his role from the original play). Friedkin manages to instill a looming sense of
impending doom – like some poor slob waiting to die after he’s been bitten by a cobra, hundreds of miles from civilization. Also, all the scratching, twitching and random slapping at bugs that aren’t there are perfectly complemented by a hotel room festooned with dangling strips of flypaper and the increasing number of scabby spots on their unwashed bodies.
Thrown into the mix is the talented and now beefed-up Harry Connick Jr. as Agnes' bullying ex-con ex-husband, but all he’s given to do is break in a couple of times, smack Judd around and leave.
The small cast is rounded out by Agnes’ lesbian friend, R.C. (Lynn Collins), who tries to convince her to leave before Peter’s mental illness rubs off (too late!), and some guy called Dr. Sweet (Brian F. O'Byrne), who doesn’t really do much at all.
BUG is by no stretch of anyone’s imagination a horror movie. Maybe a horrible movie, but not a horror movie.