Bug
Release Date: May 25, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A triumph for Judd and the director. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Begins as an ominous rumble of unease, and builds to a shriek. The last 20 minutes are searingly intense: A paranoid personality finds its mate, and they race each other into madness. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Engrossingly manic version of Tracy Letts's great stage play. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The enjoyably icky heart of Bug is still contained within the airless, increasingly ''bug-proofed'' room that becomes Agnes and Peter's whole world. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Has the feverish compression of live theater and the moody expansiveness of film. The mix is insanely powerful. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Steppenwolf alumnus Tracy Letts adapted his play into this fearsome horror movie, directed with single-minded claustrophobia by William Friedkin. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Friedkin's latest rivals his Druid horror flick "The Guardian" for sheer lunacy--Bug remains disconcerting, real, and raw. It poignantly suggests that some lost souls would rather be crazy and doomed than alone. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Ashley Judd as Agnes White, and a relative newcomer, the remarkable Michael Shannon, as Peter Evans. They're both spellbinding. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kamal AL-Solaylee
It's one helluva movie that makes Ashley Judd look ugly and demented, while turning Harry Connick Jr. into the most frightening screen thug since Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast." Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Bug has an uncompromising, anything-goes daring: Friedkin, 71, has nothing to lose at this point, and he has made this low-budget, brazenly over-the-top picture strictly on his own terms. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad Derakhshani
After nearly three decades of misfires, major and minor, William Friedkin, the creator of "The French Connection," "The Exorcist" and "Sorcerer," is back in true form with Bug. And heaven help us for it. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDuane Byrge
With his (Friedkin) vigorous camera compositions and a talented cast, he manages to straddle a wickedly fine line between taught portrayal of paranoia and parody of paranoia. Read full review
70
Village VoiceRob Nelson
Genuinely freaky-deaky, not to mention more inventively unsettling than anything Friedkin has mustered in the quarter-century since twisting little Linda Blair into a satanic spewer of pea soup and F-bombs. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis
The escalating hysteria and grisly set pieces of Bug may strain credulity, but Ms. Judd has never been more believable as a woman condemned to attract the wrong kind of man. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson Thomson
We find ourselves in the fascinating no man's land between horror and comedy -- right where this movie wants us to be. Read full review
70
SlateDana Stevens
It's unapologetically theatrical. Read full review
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
As near as I can tell, it's the smallest-scale, lowest-budget, most experimental film Friedkin has ever made, as well as the most thoroughly unpleasant and off-putting -- though it builds a grisly, masochistic fascination as it powers along. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Bug is creepy and hard to dismiss, but it's not a lot of fun and its weaknesses leave a bitter aftertaste. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Buzzes around in random menace for an hour until its third act, when - zzzzzt! - it flies straight into the zapper. Read full review
60
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
It's a tough one to recommend to everyone. Just know now this isn't a horror film as they're making it out to be nor is it a true return to form for Friedkin. Even so, it's worth seeing but perhaps as a DVD rental further down the road. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Creepy and unsettling, to say nothing of gory, but overall it's a little claustrophobic and uneven. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Bug won't get under your skin as much as it will assault you with its ghastly claustrophobic drama and over-the-top performances. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A ludicrous foray into psychological horror. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
A tale of love, desperation and conspiratorial madness, comes off on the big screen as a wacky psychological snow job. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
By the end of Bug, you may find yourself scratching yourself as well -- your head, that is -- wondering what the hell this is all about. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
If you have claustrophobia and/or fear insects, the last film you should see is Bug. I'm not sure it's worth a trip even if you don't suffer from those maladies. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A ranting, claustrophobic drama that trades in shopworn paranoid notions, William Friedkin's overwrought screen version of Tracy Letts' play assaults the viewer with aggressive thesping and over-the-top notions of shocking incident, all to intensely alienating effect. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Our traumatized soldiers deserve better representation than this irretrievably ridiculous drama, which will do nothing to revive the flagging fortunes of the man whose career lay down and died after "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection." Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
A humorless picture, a somber, arty exercise in deep denial of its exploitation roots. The dialogue is stiff and mechanical and the performances are too. Read full review
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