1975's "Bug", not to be mixed up with multiple other titles that share the same name, is a fun horror venue that changes speeds as it goes along. The narrative centers a massive earthquake that takes effect unearthing an unknown species of cockroach/beetle bug to the top layer of the earth from the inner core. Their organic properties are completely uncanny as they are sulfuric based and can easily produce fires. It's an initial dire threat as the bug's naturally slight lighting everything in town on fire, but when a scientist starts the breeding process with a normal cockroach, the mutated product becomes a completely unforeseen threat that elevates the film to a whole new level.

As stated before, the…

Hooptober 11: The Icon of Sin

“🪳We Live🪳”

Turns out, breeding flamethrowing roaches to be fucking INTELLIGENT wasn’t a good idea!!! 

Having read the book this was adapted from I’m impressed with how close they stuck to the original story. What bits they add or alter only improve the overall experience. 

You gotta love how earnestly they approached such a pulpy story. Nowadays we’d never put so much love and care into a film about underground roaches that shoot fire out their ass. Pulp is treated as a meta joke or relegated to the Sy-fy channel these days, but they really put effort into this and it shows.

Theres a terrific opening earthquake that experienced inside a church that’s very well done. The…

A belated RIP to Jeannot Szwarc. The director passed away two months ago; as the death was announced right before the passing of David Lynch, the news perhaps did not reach as many people as it would have otherwise. I heard about it-the tipping of my cap was put off by myself for all those weeks.

Here’s a director who wasn’t a legend in the field yet spent decades directing episodes of TV shows and TV movies, up to just several years ago. Everything from Bones and Supernatural to Columbo, Kojak and The Practice. Getting to direct the only Jaws sequel that wasn’t bad deserves acknowledgement and while Supergirl was hysterically bad, the presumption will be made that the fiasco…

Watched the US Shout Factory Blu-ray of this creepy-crawly oddity.

I remembered seeing disturbing bits of people being set on fire and cars exploding because of fire beetles as a wee lad when my father rented this on tape back in the day. It resulted in a minor trauma, with me checking under my bed before going to sleep every night, because yeah, you don't want to be set on fire.

So seeing this for the first time in its entirety came with certain expectations, as in my mind this was one of the scariest things I'd ever laid eyes on. Well, it is a seventies production, so it's still very much a slow burn (pun intended). Written by gimmick-shock…

BUG!!! The earth has split open during a nasty earthquake spitting out tons of murderous ancient cockroaches!!! That can ignite just about anything into a DEADLY FIREBALL OF DEATH! Where there's smoke there's an ARMY OF PYRO ROACHES!! Stop drop and roll! Before the roaches take a firey tole...on your soul!!

Bug is a highly enjoyable 70s killer insect film with loads of dramatic charm. Although the premise is deliciously campy it's a well made film that is elevated by the convicted performances and minimally ominous score.

Sounding like a 70s computer that's been taken over by aliens playing a lonely space symphony of dread, the sparse notes float along with heavy precision. A perfect soundtrack to the creepy crawling…

'Bug' starts out like a fairly traditional 70s creature film with firey bugs in the first half, which a good but slightly generic. Then something happens around the middle that I didn't see coming and that seems to set a whole new movie into motion. I don't even want to give it away because it's more fun if you just let it unfold, but let's just say a grief-struck Bradford Dillman living in isolation with his bugs in the second half completely turned this movie around for me.

Dillman has dealt with plenty of killer animals in his career (piranhas, killer bees, killer bats, and whatever René Cardona Jr. found around the Amazon) and while I always liked him, I've…

•Based on Novels (3/4)

💥🔥 ➡️ Adaptation of Thomas Page's book entitled «The Hephaestus Plague». He participated as a screenwriter on the film in collaboration with the legendary William Castle.

After an earthquake, a new species of cockroaches emerges and –after a short stay– a depressed professor attempts to preserve them. A fatal experiment.

Strange, fulminant, painful, and decrepit. Clumsy narration.
The turning point comes with the death of the professor's wife, because that's when the film takes a radical turn from what it was telling about the rise of these insects. It becomes the fateful diary of a mad scientist consumed by his aversions.

Not recommended for those who suffer from katsaridaphobia.

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💥🔥 ➡️ Adaptación del libro de…

"WE LIVE"

I guess William Castle must've still had some pull in the wake of the mega success of "Rosemary's Baby" to get Paramount to release this less-than-savory B offering. Based on Thomas Page's novel "The Hephaestus Plague", the narrative concerns the aftermath of an earthquake in a tiny desert community in which prehistoric insects emerge from their subterranean abodes. While they resemble traditional cockroaches, they demonstrate peculiar abilities not shared w/ your garden variety house pest. These tiny terrors are blind, immune to standard insecticides, and they have a curious habit of sparking fires (w/ an even more unusual appetite for ashes). Just as the town is busying itself cleaning up the quake debris (the church is gonna need…

When an earthquake hits a small Californian town, a large crack in a field opens up releasing thousands of prehistoric arsonist cockroaches. These mutations are able to cause fire by rubbing together their cerci, and waste no time at all in causing fires all over town. A scientist, James Parmiter, discovers the bugs will soon die out as they can't survive in the low air pressure on the Earth's surface, but sadly for Parmiter, one of the bugs last victims is his wife, Carrie. It's fair to say the death of his wife has an adverse effect on the man's sanity, and when he decides to try and mate one of the last surviving fire-roaches with a common cockroach, the…

A professor studies a new breed of cockroach that emerges from a chasm in the land after a strong earthquake. Their natural defense mechanism is their ability to start a fire by the friction they create by rubbing their legs together. Containment becomes a major issue once it's evident how dangerous they can be. The kills in this are simply brutal. One woman answers a phone call with a roach near the ear piece that gets in her ear and then ignites. The plot grows darker as the professor, played by Bradford Dillman, locks himself in and begins experimenting to try to find a cure for the threat that turns into an obsession. Some of the final act drags a…