I’ve been meaning to see Bug ever since it came out in theaters over the summer, but because it was going up against Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Spider-Man 3, I managed to miss it. Then I kind of forgot about it until I started seeing the DVD case at Blockbuster, and finally got around to renting it a couple weeks ago.

I was expecting this to be a horror movie because that’s how it was marketed way back during its release, and because it was directed by William Friedkin, of Exorcist fame. However, I discovered that Bug was more of a psychological thriller than anything else — a scenario that simply didn’t work for me in the end.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Ashely Judd stars as Agnes White, a lower-class woman who lives in a motel apartment and works as a waitress in a lesbian bar. The opening scenes show us that Agnes is skittish and jumpy because of prank phone calls she’s been receiving. No one ever speaks; all she ever hears is heavy breathing. She suspects the calls are from her ex-husband Jerry (played by Harry Connick, Jr.) because he’s due to be out on parole now, but she has no proof of this.

One night after work, a fellow waitress from the bar named R.C. (Lynn Collins) drops by Agnes’ apartment with Peter (Michael Shannon), a drifter she recently met. Agnes and R.C. drink and do cocaine, while Peter just hovers in the background watching them. R.C. leaves a little while later, but Peter stays on. He and Agnes get to talking, and it’s revealed that he was in the army for a time, and is currently between living arrangements and jobs. Agnes invites Peter to stay the night, and he accepts.

The next day, Jerry shows up. He comes in uninvited, takes a shower, hits Agnes, takes all her cash, and then leaves again just as Peter comes in. Peter helps clean Agnes up, the two get to talking again, and they eventually end up sleeping together.

From that point forward, the film focuses almost entirely on the way Peter and Agnes feed off each other’s problems. Peter is soon shown to be an extremely paranoid, delusional person who thinks the army is conducting experiments on him. He’s convinced that the army has somehow infested Agnes’ apartment with bugs as a means of taking him down. He exhibits bite marks despite the fact that neither Agnes nor R.C. can actually see any bugs, and spends a lot of time looking at things under a microscope. Soon after, Agnes becomes convinced that Peter is right, and they both descend into complete madness.

My Reaction: As I said above, this was certainly not the horror movie I was expecting it to be. I nevertheless watched it with an open mind, hoping that the story would be worthwhile anyway, but I was extremely disappointed by what I saw. I usually appreciate psychological thrillers — at least when the basic premise or the main characters are interesting enough to carry the film. That just wasn’t the case with Bug, so the whole thing fell flat.

First of all, I didn’t feel any kind of connection with either Agnes or Peter. I’ve read some fan reaction stating that Agnes and Peter were supposed to be regular everyday joes, but that didn’t fly with me. A delusional drifter and a white trash drinker/drug user who sleeps with said drifter within 24 hours are certainly not the kind of people I’ve ever been around. So I didn’t have any sympathy for either of them right at the beginning, and the script didn’t give me a chance to care about them as the story progressed.

Second, the premise just wasn’t engaging enough. So these two loony loners in a dumpy motel room believe they’ve got a bug infestation on their hands? They scratch themselves until they bleed, do up the room in tinfoil and bug zappers, and then barricade themselves in against intruders? Meh. Not exactly exciting stuff there.

Speaking of those bug zappers, how did they even afford so many? The cheapest ones are like $20 each, and there were at least 10-15 in the room. Agnes never had anything but crumpled singles in her purse, while Peter probably didn’t have much either. I know this is merely a nitpick, but I was totally distracted by these questions when I saw all those zappers on the screen.

Judd and Shannon were pretty good with the material they had to work with, but I just couldn’t get into their story or care about their plight. As a result, I give Bug only 2 stars out of 5, and recommend that you skip it.

I saw the latest Stephen King movie 1408 about two months ago, but had been holding off on writing my review because I wanted to read King’s original short story for the sake of comparison. But I’ve been so busy recently and have so many other books in my reading queue that I’ve decided to give up on that plan and just write the review based on my experience with the movie alone. The details of the film are already becoming a bit foggy, and I know that if I wait any longer, I’ll forget what the whole thing was about! So here we go.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Mike Enslin (played by John Cusack) is a writer who’s making a decent living as a guy who debunks ghost stories. He travels the country visiting these supposedly haunted places (usually hotels and B&Bs), spending the night, and then dictating his cynical impressions into his ever-present tape recorder. His books then basically serve as travel guides for people who are into the paranormal, and we’re given the impression that his reviews actually have a significant impact on the businesses in question.

Mike’s readers and fans constantly suggest places for him to visit. He’ll do a bit of preliminary research on the place, and if he thinks it’s worth a trip, he’ll make a reservation. One day Mike receives a postcard in his P.O. box that simply says, “Don’t stay in 1408.” The picture on front shows that it’s from the Dolphin Hotel in New York. Mike is puzzled for a moment, then quickly adds up the digits in 1408, and smirks when he realizes the result is 13. At first he’s ready to pass it off as a prank, but decides to press further.

When Mike calls the Dolphin hotel to make a reservation for room 1408, he’s told that the room is not available — not for that weekend, next week, next month, or next year. No one uses room 1408 anymore, so Mike’s going to have to choose a different room. Of course, this gets Mike more curious than ever and he demands to speak with the manager, a man named Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson). After some more back and forth about the room, Olin finally caves and says Mike can come in.

Before Mike is given the key to the room, he has to have a meeting with Mr. Olin in person. Mr. Olin tries once more to persuade Mike that he shouldn’t spend the night in the room. There have been 50-something deaths in the room since the Dolphin hotel opened, all suicides, all within the first hour of check-in. Olin even has a file full of gruesome pictures to prove it. Nevertheless, Mike won’t be deterred. He gets his key, an expensive bottle of booze, and checks in.

The rest of the film then shows all the strange things that happen to Mike during his stay in the room and his desperate attempts to survive that critical first hour. He’s visited by the ghosts of past victims who have died in 1408, as well as by the ghost of his daughter who died a year or two earlier. Oh, and he’s also treated to The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun” immediately after anything bad happens.

My Reaction: I’m not afraid to admit that I didn’t get this movie at all. In fact, that’s one of the main reasons that I wanted to read the short story before writing this review — in the hopes that the story would answer some questions that the filmmakers didn’t bother with.

The biggest problem I had with this film was the lack of background information on the room and why it was haunted, or possessed, or evil, or whatever you want to call it. Without knowing why or how the room got that way, I couldn’t really get into what was going on with Mike. Was this just supposed to be a random manifestation of evil? I didn’t know, and as a result, I didn’t care.

I did like the first part of the movie, when Mike was just starting out in the room. I thought the use of the Carpenters song was effective and hilarious, and it seemed as though the film had a lot of potential. But then I just kept waiting and waiting for a payoff that never came, so I left the theater disappointed with the result.

Overall, I thought 1408 wasn’t a very good standalone film. Perhaps I need to read the short story in order to appreciate the movie, or perhaps the movie wasn’t even meant to be understood. Whatever the reason, I just felt that this was a waste of time. I give it 2 stars out of 5.