DAY 2
Bug
William Friedkin, 2006
While hiding out from her ex, a woman meets a man who seems to be harbouring one very strange secret.
Here's a question for you - where exactly is the line between a psychological
thriller and a psychological
horror? This case of sub-genre semantics was on my mind all throughout
Bug, a stage-play adaptation that takes place almost entirely within the confines of a single motel room with a handful of characters bouncing off one another. It starts off as a bizarre love triangle where Ashley Judd's jaded burnout is caught between her abusive ex (Harry Connick Jr.) and the off-kilter new guy (Michael Shannon) - and then the bugs start showing up. Or do they? It doesn't matter since the question of whether or not the bugs are real or just part of the leads' fevered imagination isn't particularly ambiguous - where else would the "psychological" part kick in? - and the real horror comes from watching Judd and Shannon spiral downwards in increasingly insane and self-destructive ways. I tend to have a problem with horror movies that build so much of their stakes on inevitable (if not predictable) outcomes as it runs the risk of deflating any sense of investment in the proceedings but
Bug is at least somewhat by saved Judd and Shannon committing to the material (the former might as well be anticipating Toni Collette in
Hereditary during the third act while the latter is always good at playing crazy bastards), to say nothing of how Friedkin is able to shoot around the cramped location for maximum discomfort (and, much like the scariest parts of
The Exorcist, forgoes the use of music entirely). These elements are what make me think that
Bug deserves to be categorised more as a horror than a thriller - a thriller involves tension and excitement, but
Bug swaps that out for creeping dread to admittedly middling but nevertheless intriguing effect.