Bug

I still remember going through the TV channels as a kid, maybe around 6 or 7 and stumbling upon the last third of this movie with no context and it absolutely disturbed me. For a long time I didn't know if it was a some random dream this image of two people stuck inside this ultra blue room screaming about bugs but after the passing of William Friedkin I of course intended to explore more of his works and I just happen to find this among his filmography and at last here I am. I'm glad to say this still disturbs me the same way it did when I was a kid, Bug is relentless, a psychological mostly chamber drama set exploration into how isolation, paranoia, mental illness and other humans can turn us into living portraits of the destruction of the mind. While some may find the ambiguity here frustrating it adds up to a intense if detached experience, you feel removed from it all which makes watching it harder, you want to care and you do you just don't know what to do as the film drags you through increasing restlessness with no signs of a particular destination. Theres no progression or development only deterioration from these characters who's normality twists so heavily you question the film's first half retroactively, was this something that was inevitable or was it by chance? I know Friedkin stated this isn't a horror film but my young ass self would beg to differ. Sure i didn't feel like i got much out of this by the end, its a experience first and foremost and in that sense the thesis here is more melodramatic then empathetic but you can't deny the intensity Friedkin creates with Bug, its not really a horror film but its also not really a love story, its something... and it bugs the hell out of me