Bugged (1996) User Reviews

slapstick

[trashgang · 3/10 · 3 April 2017]

What started as a promising script turns out into a typical Troma horror flick. Stated in old Fangoria's as a great horror flick but made in the end of the nineties it's the era that horror was a not done and most of them weren't that good at all. So here we go with a tribute to the sixties with oversized creatures.

Sadly it is a slapstick. The bug hunters are some stupid guys who do have laughable situations and turns this flick into a comedy and not into a straight horror. The effects are lame too but being a low budget I didn't mind at all. Also a lot of talking going on that makes it almost not watchable.

only to see the bugs

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 1,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Cut it some slack

[eminges · 25 August 2002]

Sure, you're not going to watch "Bugged" expecting to be scared. Or impressed with the acting, camerawork, or set design. Or intrigued by the clever and insightful plot. I mean, KAUFMAN AND HERZ released it - what?

So why bother? Because it's like going to a decent college production of some obscure Restoration comedy - overcoming incredible odds, occasionally you'll actually get sucked in to the action. Ron Armstrong wants (or at least at one time wanted) to make movies. He actually gets one financed. He can't write for squat - "serums" and "brilliant paper, doctor" and "tests on human subjects," I mean, y'all gotta STOP - and he can't do much with his actors, which is kind of a shame, because some of them aren't bad at all.

But, listen, folks, I watched this immediately after watching "Feeders." Armstrong starts looking like a young Orson Welles by comparison. He got it done, he got Troma to distribute it, it has a beginning and an end and most of the time you can tell what's supposed to be happening on screen. Some of the close-up work is FINE. And a couple of his actors might actually have small, undistinguished careers for themselves in this business. You think you can do better your first time out? Get of your *** and prove it.

Where's the NAACP when you need it?

[Mr. OpEd · 1/10 · 31 December 2000]

Big spoiler right here: this film is B!A!D! But enjoy, it's good bad.

Bugged is the kind of film you can't believe exists, with dialog, plotting, and direction so ineptly handled that Uncle Ned's Carlsbad Cavern home video looks like an IMAX experience. Since it's a Troma flick, there's plenty of gross-out gore on tap, but its even sillier than usual.

Most of the production money seems to have gone into buying soda and sandwiches for cast and crew. The brilliant dialog is best summed up in the immortal, "%@#$! What was that?" which is second only to the oft screamed, "Now what?"

Any knowledge of how people act in a desperate situation is alien to Ronald Armstrong, the writer/director. When one of the friends is found being eaten alive by a grasshopper/termite/chiapet thing, Armstrong has the survivors immediately making time with cute, but dumb-as-a-doorknob, "Divine." While she's being hit on, Divine is cooking up a big steaming pot of a rat-poison/oatmeal mixture on the stove, stirring, smiling, stirring, smiling, never falling over dead from the fumes!

The killer bugs are as frightening as piñatas, which they too closely resemble. The effects used to move them include dragging them across tile floors real fast with their legs dragging behind.

The highlight for the film would probably have been the house blowing up, but they were either out of cash or never had any, so instead of seeing even a miniature go up in flames, they simply let the screen go black (eat you heart out ILM).

The cast is virtually all black. How can the NAACP consistently censor something truly funny like Amos and Andy (which depicts characters certainly no less similiar than those on 99% of all white comedy shows), but says nary a peep about something like Bugged. Oh well, it's best they don't know about how demeaning this film is to all involved (as it would be if it were played by any single ethnic group, frankly). Before they put the kabosh on Bugged, get some friends together and get ready for the Plan 9 of Bug Exterminator movies.

Could have been better

[khudozhnik36 · 1/10 · 26 May 2006]

I received this movie as a birthday gift because all of my friends know I'm a big fan of low budget Horror flicks. Kaufman Studios have always made the cheesy gory flicks that delivered. I loved to watch their films at home on rainy nights with my family...until I saw Bugged...WHAT HAPPENED?

This Movie started out with a pretty good concept about mutating bugs and even added some slick comedy but overall the writing is just bad and that was mistake number one. Ronald K. Armstrong should learn to first be a better writer before becoming a filmmaker. After reading the Credits we discover he gave himself the most important role in the film!?! two words Mr. Director "Acting Lessons" OK? Mr. Armstrong joins the ranks of other writer/directors who cast themselves in their own movies and that's mistake number two.

The only thing that I believed saved this film was the artistic camera work and the musical score, (let's hear it for the crew!) The cast of other actors who in the beginning of this production seemed a bit cold, really warmed up toward the middle and end of this production. Everyone pulled together and helped to pull this film off. Ronald Armstrong may lack the talent to ever become a decent Director or Actor but, I'll say this of him-He seems to know how to organize people to get them all to come together and pull his productions off.

This film, I have to say can be an inspiration to any young filmmaker who dreams of making their own movie because if Mr. Armstrong was able to pull this off, Any one else can too. If you get a chance to see this film, watch it for the sake of getting inspired to do "Better" in the future. Hollywood needs bigger and better Horror Flicks to keep this genre coming back from it's grave.

Great!

[whammy666 · 7/10 · 15 December 2007]

Okay, maybe not great, but hella-entertaining! Plot revolves around a scientist who creates some formula to make him healthy and stronger, but also changes him into a monster. When that formula gets mixed up with bug repellant, bugs grow to be 20 times their normal size! The bugs look so fake, it's hilarious, and this is honestly one of the best Urban Horror movies I have seen. Mainly for the reason Lloyd states in the introduction, that they don't brag about being black and make reference to it. If you watch other Urban horror films, it's true, they are calling each other the n word, etc. In this they don't call themselves black once. I'm sorry, does this sound racist? Well, I think you get the point. Way better than stuff like Leprechaun in da Hood, or Ax Em, or Don't Be Scared. Really a fun, funny horror flick.

Well-written well acted, horribly cute monster.

[yeodawg · 4 November 2011]

Well-written well acted, horrible monster.

In this well written funny, well acted every character is fleshed out, with real acting. A couple of low wage carbon life forms are tasked with transporting a dangerous mutating chemical to a center. They hit a bump in the road and end up spilling their load. They transport it into a passing Good Samaritan exterminator van. The van goes back to its base, the juice gets mixed up with the exterminator goop and they end up spraying it all over a hot chicks house. The goo makes her bugs grow the size of Shaquille O Neal's shoes. They dispatch a bunch of teams of exterminators hoping to get the reward money for capturing the big bug. The bug attacks them and it turns into a bug hunt. The only problem is the bug looks like something they got at some ethnic street festival. It's a child toy with big bug eyes. The animals more cute than scary.