This film, Bug, shares its title with another Bug. The Bug I know is a William Castle film. I assumed this was a remake of that Bug done by Castle Productions who previously remade Castle’s films House on Haunted Hill, 13 Ghosts and Ghost Ship. It isn’t.

Castle’s Bug has actual bugs. This Bug has imagined ones. The bugs in this Bug are the product of a paranoid, delusional schizophrenic who believes he was infected with bugs by the government during his time in the military during the Gulf War. Michael Shannon plays the mentally ill war vet, Peter Evans.

Bug chronicles Peter’s struggle to deal with his delusion and shows how his affliction affects those he encounters. It’s not a traditional horror film, but more of a psychological thriller.

The story starts out really slow, but with good reason. It develops the characters and shows how Agnes (Judd) would be able to fall into believing Peter’s delusion. She turns to Peter out of loneliness as she had an only child who was kidnapped and desperation due to an abusive husband (Connick, Jr.) who has recently come back into her life after being paroled. The slow beginning also offers an excellent contrast to a very fevered ending. The last twenty minutes of the film are so intense, so truly insane, the slow beginning serves to make it seem even more intense and more insane.

At first, I was disappointed with Bug when I realized it was not a Castle remake. I was further expecting more straight-forward horror with William Friedkin (The Exorcist) directing. Even when I had just left the theater, I wasn’t sure if I liked Bug. But I do. I like it a lot. It was totally f’ed up but in a really good way.

Bug offers a really good story, some really cringe-worthy moments and will keep you wondering what the heck is going on all the way through, but in a good way. Maybe the bugs are real after all…who knows?

Grade: A-