Bugs: A Trilogy

While "Bugs: A Trilogy" might not be for everyone (it's truly unsettling and creepy,) fans of the new horror wave that emphasizes social commentary in addition to fright will thoroughly enjoy this piece. With the focus on the "bugs" that infect the human mental condition, rather than literal insects, this movie tends to be more about what isn't seen rather than what is. Don't expect jump scares and monsters, but be prepared for psychological horror throughout. Overall, it calls to mind 2006's "Bug" albeit, on an indie budget.

You can get any closer to gross bugs than in this movie. Each of the stories is a bit unsettling mostly because of the bugs and thoughts of bugs. The cast is excellent at amplifying the hair raising feeling you get when something like a bug is crawling on you. A fun film, but you may want to wait a while to eat before or after watching.

It's really hard to do Horror-Thriller on a budget with an original idea. I feel it is pulled off successfully in this trilogy of stories. I was compelled from the first frame and it has to be good to hold my attention. If you are looking for a silly over the top Hollywood special effect horror film this isn't it. A good horror thriller makes you think and use your imagination, that is what this film did for me.

Of this trilogy, the first third isn't bad; the second is weak and lacks a much-needed reveal; and the third is incoherent. All in all, a forgettable anthology.

There should be a warning posted for the sake of the unsuspecting hypochondriac, whom otherwise will be subjected to watching his or her worst fears play out in Bugs: A Trilogy (knowing there are mites in my eyelashes, for example, really messes with my psychological well-being). But in these stories from Alexandra Grunberg delivered to the screen by director Simone Kisiel, the parasites we encounter aren't all of the insect world.

Throughout these tales, our wellness is under various forms of assault - either through invasion of the body or of the mind - and the shared result is the introduction of in-your-head terror. It's this clever connective tissue which binds these three otherwise disparate episodes together.

It's safe to say that Bugs: A Trilogy finds its own unique space in the psychological thriller category. It uses a shrewdly-leveraged storytelling idea, and over the course of each tale, employs cohesive acting and disturbing soundscapes to ratchet up the queasiness and unrest. Well-conceived and ultimately well-done.