A 1975 American science fiction/horror movie directed by Jeannot Szwarc that has an earthquake unleashing mutant cockroaches onto the world. It was co-written and produced for Paramount by William Castle as his final film.
The movie stars Bradford Dillman, Joanna Miles, Richard Gilliland, Alan Fudge, Jesse Vint, Patty Mc Cormack, Jamie Smith Jackson, Brendon Dillon, Frederic Downs, James Greene, and Jim Poyner.
It was released on June 17, 1975.
Tropes for the film:
- Apocalyptic Log: Ultimately averted. Parmiter makes an audio log of his study of the hybrid bugs, but they deliberately destroy it, so his findings can never be discovered.
- Broken Record: There is a scene where a woman comes looking for Parmiter. Hearing his voice coming from his cabin, she steps inside. What she finds is the place swarming with the killer bugs he has managed to breed, and his recorder repeating the phrase "I have gone too far. I have gone too far. I have gone too far. I have gone too far"...
- Cosmic Horror Story: The plot is about blind, pyromaniac cockroaches who emerge from a fissure in the ground after an earthquake. A local scientist named Parmiter becomes curious about them, which gradually turns into an obsession until it's apparent that something else is compelling his actions, particularly cross-breeding them with regular cockroaches, so that the subterranean insects can survive on the surface, and this is after one of them kills his wife. It turns out that it's the roaches themselves compelling him. True to this genre, the movie ends with the insects' final form, now with eyes and wings, thanking him by dragging him back to Hell with them.
- Creepy Cockroach: The cockroaches that are able to set things on fire.
- The Film of the Book: Based on Thomas Page's novel The Hephaestus Plague.
- Hell Is That Noise: The raspy, falcon-like shrieking sound that the titular insects make in their final form, when they emerge from the pit and come after Parmiter.
- One-Word Title: Bug.
- Tagline: "They look like rocks... Possess a high intelligence... Have no eyes... And eat ashes... They travel in your car exhaust... They make fire... They kill".
