BUGS: A TRILOGY (2018)

New streaming on Tubi from Magic Dog Productions!
Directed by Simone Kisiel.
Written by Alexandra Grunberg.
Check out the trailer here!!

BUGS: A TRILOGY is an anthology of three short films from director/writer team Simone Kisiel and Alexandra Grunberg. There isn’t so much as a wraparound segment as there is closeups of bugs of all kinds doing what bugs usually do…which is creep me the fuck out. The film opens not by showing the bugs themselves, but by the cracks and crevices around houses and apartments where they can get in and fester. This is an anthology that really knows what it takes to burrow under your skin from beginning to end.

Story one is “Hatchling.” It’s a shortie about a troubled kid Elliott who goes to stay with a family friend (played by writer of this whole anthology Alexandra Grunberg) while his mother is away to vaguely “get better.” As the night goes on, Elliott proves to be a true little shit, giving his babysitter plenty of grief. This one of course, involves some kind of “hatching” as the title indicates. It’s creepy, crawly, and will definitely leave your skin crawling. This one is wonderfully paced, keeping you on the edge until the final itchy and plenty morbid moments. I loved the echoey voice music that haunts this potent little, short by Miriam Mayer.

Moving on the story two, “Parasite.” And as the name suggests, this one gets damn gross extremely fast. It’s about a young girl with stomach problems (played by writer Alexandra Grunberg) who goes to see a doctor who prescribes her an experimental new drug. While the girl hopes it will make her better, the results are less than appetizing. Don’t watch this one on a full stomach. You’ve been warned. The title gives away a lot and this one turned out to be pretty predictable, while wholly gaggingly grody. To slap a cherry on top of this one, the ending shows actual footage of tons of parasitic worms and ticks, just in case you weren’t skeezed out enough.

The third and final number is called “Bed Bugs.” Ugh…I know. Just the mere mention makes me squirm. And this, the longest of the three shorts, does just that. While bed bugs definitely are a part of the story, as this is a tale about a young woman (again played by writer Alexandra Grunberg) who wakes one night from her nightmare and believes her bed is infested with those little critters. Turns out, it is a bit more than just bed bugs that is haunting her as they serve as a metaphor for something much more horrible that occurred in her past. While the message is made clear by the end, I really liked the way these tiny monsters are peppered throughout, culminating in a terrifying and gut-wrenching end when the truth comes out. Just like the other two, this one will make you squirm, just in a different way.

God, I’m still scratching my arms, but I loved every segment, yes even the “Parasite” segment, of this little trilogy of shorts. While minimal, the effects were…well…effective in causing that itchy scratchy feel. It’s the way these bugs were used and mentioned in the narrative that made everything feel so gross and intrusive. The film relies on the viewers’ own gut reaction to the creatures and leaves a lot unshown and unsaid, taking advantage of that natural repulsion to the subject matter to its fullest extent. BUGS: A TRILOGY is a winner of an anthology and if you have the stomach and thick skin for it, I think you’re going to be as affected by it as I was. This was a repugnantly good trio of unforgettable tales, and I can’t wait to see what’s next from the team of Kisiel and Grunberg.