A 1975 American Sci-Fi Horror film directed by Jeannot Szwarc, which has an earthquake unleashing mutant cockroaches onto the world. It was co-written and produced for Paramount by William Castle as his final film. It was released on June 17, 1975.
The movie stars Bradford Dillman, Joanna Miles, Richard Gilliland, Alan Fudge, Jesse Vint, Patty McCormack, Jamie Smith Jackson, Brendon Dillon, Frederic Downs, James Greene, and Jim Poyner.
Not to be confused with the William Friedkin film of the same name.
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.
- Gainax Ending: The movie ends with the now-winged mutated roaches attacking Parmitter and setting him ablaze, causing him to run out and fall into the fissure to his death, with the roaches descending back to whence they came while the fissure closes up. The credits roll right after.
- 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".