Neon Dreams: BUG – 20th Anniversary Screening!

 

 

Neon Dreams is celebrating the summer of 2006, and first up is William Friedkin’s Bug. An unholy cinematic buffet of claustrophobia, paranoia, and sticky desert heat, featuring unforgettable performances from Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon (reprising his role from Tracy Letts’ original stage play).

 

 

Marketed as a horror-thriller, Friedkin has insisted this was just the studio’s way of roping in fans of The Exorcist and The French Connection, and that Bug is actually “in many ways, a black comedy love story.” Whatever way you want to categorize it, the film is a haunting tale of two lost souls desperate for connection while holed up in a seedy motel room. It’s also an electrifying sensory experience that’s as captivating and deeply human as it is chaotic and anxiety-inducing. 

 

 

Any opportunity to see Friedkin cook on the big screen should be considered a call-to-action, but squirming along to this overlooked gem with a crowd is downright mandatory. If you can handle it.