BUGGED!
dir. Ronald K. Armstrong, 1996
USA. 82 min.
In English.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20 – 10PM
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26 – 7:30PM
They Exterminate You!
Exterminators unwittingly create monsters by spraying crickets with a genetic mutating agent.
A wildly underrated mid-90s horror-comedy gem, BUGGED! was a passion project from writer/director/editor/star Ronald K. Armstrong. A huge fan of Troma films, he pitched the idea of a movie about killer crickets that would be told from a Black perspective to Lloyd Kaufman, and luckily for us, Troma decided to produce.
Shot by S. Torianno Berry (director of Spectacle favorite THE BLACK BEYOND) and starring an entirely Black cast, BUGGED! feels like a shockingly charming low budget cousin to GHOSTBUSTERS, featuring effective and goopy practical effects alongside genuine laughs and a refreshing lack of self awareness or irony that ruins a lot of Troma originals.
In a just world, this film would have led to bigger and better films for Ronald and his team, but at least we’ll always have BUGGED!