Coming to theaters May 25th is the screen adaptation of Tracy Lett’s off-Broadway play Bug. The movie is directed by William Friedkin and stars Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr., and Michael Shannon. The trailer for the movie, which you can view here, is little more than a teaser. You get just enough to set tingles shivering down your spine and your flesh to crawling but you don’t get much more. So I went browsing around after reading the credits blurb and I found out a little bit more.

The majority of the story takes place in a seedy motel in Oklahoma and revolves around the character Agnes, played by Judd, a waitress who is the personification of “white trash”. Agnes lives in fear of her violent ex-husband and is one day introduced to a war veteran by the name of Peter (Michael Shannon). While the trailer clearly shows that this movie is a definite horror and thriller flick the plot and storyline are much deeper than that. Reading up on the play showed me that this film is also satirical and comedic in it’s approach to address domestic violence, conspiracy theories, paranoia, delusions, and schizophrenia. The aim is to take the viewers down a seedier path of our society and from what I can see the bug movie has the potential to do just that.

The creators of the bug movie have created two posters to advertise the movie. The one featured above and the one to your right, to view at full size click on the images and they will open in a new browser. Now personally I’m kind of torn between the two posters. Despite the name of Bug the movie is not so much about creepy crawlies as it is about psychosis, paranoia, and madness. Human frailties and shortcomings if you will. In that sense I think that the second poster best portrays what the movie is about. Since I’ve seen this movie advertised on the horror level more than the thriller/psychological though I would say that the first poster would be the better marketing strategy as it helps the movie to live up to the expectations of a bug movie though it does not really accurately convey what the movie is about.