Good concept, poorly executed.

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Reading an old issue of UK film mag Empire,I Checked the "archive" pages,and spotted a review for William Castle's final "shock Horror." Previously having only seen his famous House on Haunted Hill,I decided that it was the perfect time to see Castle build his ant (bug) kingdom.The plot:Shaken by being caught in the middle of an earthquake, a town finds itself surrounded by mutant bugs,who can unleash fire that murders animals and people.Thanks to the low air pressure on the Earth's surface most of the bugs die. Wanting to learn more about the bugs, Prof. James Parmiter keeps some of them alive in storage units. Taking them to an isolated location for research, Parmiter begins to find his own mind bugging him.View on the film:Sliding out of Thomas Page's book,the screenplay by Page and producer/cameo actor William Castle slime's between a Disaster Movie and a creepy Sci-Fi Creature Feature. Setting the bed bugs on fire,the writers send the critters flying into a deliciously bonkers atmosphere,where the stupidity folks usually show in this genre is given an extra push by the people of the town getting in situations with the bugs that is all their own fault! Leaving behind some of Castle's famous "shock & awe" antics for the second half,the writers lock James Parmiter in for an unexpectedly eerie,slow-burn Sci-Fi Horror,that takes advantage of the "last man on earth" setting to turn the bugs (who are given sex scenes!) into objects of paranoia,closing in on James ParmiterGrabbing handfuls of the bugs, director Jeannot Szwarc and cinematographer Michel Hugo wrap the film in Charles Fox's nerve- shredding synch score moving in time with the brash primary colours of the bug attacks. Biting into everything (including a poor cat) Szwarc makes everyone be hilariously stupid,with even the most basic safety options (no gloves!) being something that does distract from the unfolding disaster. Stuck in a small room on his own, Bradford Dillman gives an excellent performance as James Parmiter,whose closeness with the bugs Dillman uses to sink Parmiter into a pit of madness,as he becomes a bug for the bugs.

I caught this film on the movie channel last night. The film is actually entertaining about cockroaches but not any kind of cockroaches. They are malevolent unique creatures. Bradford Dillman plays the scientist who becomes fascinated by them. He does a very good job in playing him. You can see and hear his character descend into madness. For a thriller film, the suspense slowly builds up to a predictable climax. I wished there was more in the ending. I enjoyed how the film progresses slowly with revelations about the fire starting cockroaches that kill anyone and eat meat. Dillman's Jim isn't crazy at first but slowly descends into madness. He realizes it but it's too late. Director William Castle directed a film based on the novel. While the film is almost 40 years old, it is entertaining at slowly building suspense and interest in the subject.

This movie is about insects that are indeed pyromaniacs. They have a liking for setting people at Gas Mark 8 and baking them for 40 minutes, turning halfway for an even cooking.They are not content with incinerating their victims but also like to communicate with them by arranging themselves into letters. When communicating with the hero (Bradford Dillman) they form this sentence:HELLO, PARMITER. I LIKE YOUR SOCKS. MAY WE SET THEM ALIGHT, PLEASE?Naturally, the scientist is driven over the edge into insanity by all of this.HELLO, PARMITER, MAY WE WATCH 'ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES' ON CHANNEL TWO? HELLO, PARMITER. HAVE YOU TAKEN A BATH RECENTLY? HELLO, PARMITER. PUT THAT AWAY, IT'S DISGUSTING. WE CAN SEE YOU PARMITER. I HOPE YOU ARE GOING TO WASH YOUR HANDS AFTER DOING THAT, YOU DIRTY SWINE.These insects are bad ass. They are psychologically nasty as well as incendiary little sods.

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.