In BUG (2006), a psychological horror film directed by William Friedkin (THE EXORCIST) and written by Tracy Letts (based on his 1996 play), a lonely woman connects with a paranoid drifter and engages in a race to delusion and madness. This is a good movie about delusion and the dark if occasionally comforting places it can take us.
Agnes (Ashley Judd) lives in a motel and works at a bar. She struggles to find moments of happiness, often aided by drugs and alcohol, after losing her son years earlier to a kidnapping and her ex-husband (a very menacing Harry Connick Jr.) tried to kill her and went to jail. A friend introduces her to Peter (Michael Shannon), who is courteous if incredibly socially awkward. He is so non-threatening and bumbling that she likes having him around; his presence is a comfort.
When her old life threatens to return and rob of her of any control she has left she latches onto Peter, who becomes increasingly erratic, claiming massive forces are pursuing him and have infected him with a strange parasite.
The result is psychological horror, a locked room where the participants have locked themselves inside their own world, and a lot of the room is their shared head space. No matter how crazy Peter acts, Agnes goes along with it, weaving an elaborate conspiracy crashing toward a final scene that is simply breathtaking in its passion and audacity. Judd and Shannon give the roles their absolute all, sweeping us along, and we are terrified, not so much scared for ourselves but for where this is all going for these people who obviously need help.
Overall, I found BUG to be a nice surprise. When I first saw it come out, I pictured it as a typical horror grossout, but it’s far more complex than that, far more psychological, powerful, and yes, relevant. In today’s world, where conspiracy theories get mainstreamed by the internet, you might even find yourself saying, Oh, I know a guy exactly like that.
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