Fire on Six Legs

An earthquake occurs in the middle of a sermon and unleashes a horde of fire-breathing cockroaches from the depths of the earth. 1975's Bug depicts these traumatic events and those that follow. It's cheesy, the screenplay was co-written by William Castle, but a cheap '70s horror flick sometimes can feel like a balm.

The insects crawl up from a big crevasse opened by the earthquake. They bag their first kills in the form of an old man and his son who try to get their truck started, not knowing some of the fateful cockroaches have crawled into the tailpipe. So they explode.

As is often the case with '70s movies these days, I want every single shirt the men are wearing in it. You know that western style shirt with the pointy pockets and the yoke on the shoulders, they're usually plaid? I saw John Foggerty on Club Random a couple weeks ago wearing one. He said his wife makes them because they can't buy them anymore. Actually you can find a few on Amazon. I have two. One of them was a very lucky find at a Sears that was closing six years ago, it was less than ten dollars.

Anyway, bugs keep attacking. There are two scenes of them preying on young women. In one case, the bug camps out on a telephone receiver and when she unwittingly puts it to her ear the bug latches on. She runs around screaming, for some reason not even attempting to pull the bug off while it starts to set fire to her ear canal. "Make an effort," I said to the screen.

Much of the film follows a professor (Bradford Dillman) who tries to preserve this quirky new species in spite of everything. He's pretty good, he has slight Herbert West vibes.