Based upon playwright Tracy Lett’s acclaimed 2004 off-Broadway thriller, Bug is a claustrophobic and paranoid movie about, well, claustrophobia and paranoia (among other things). Ashley Judd stars as a waitress living in a run-down motel whose tentative romance with twitchy drifter Peter (Michael Shannon) marks the beginning of the end for both of them. Claiming to be a Gulf War veteran, the increasingly bizarre Peter spins tales of government cover-ups and conspiracies, hidden agendas, mysterious medical procedures … and bugs. Lots of bugs. Bugs crawling beneath your skin and behind your eyeballs. It doesn’t take too long for Judd to become convinced that her maybe-paramour is on to something, and then matters take a turn for the even weirder. Director William Friedkin, who did some of his finest filmmaking in the narrow confines of Linda Blair’s bedroom in The Exorcist, wrings a lot of tension and nightmare potential out of the film’s essentially one-set location. And the performers are up for the weirdness, though Judd’s histrionics as the climax approaches are a bit too much. Regardless, Bug is a memorably creepy little piece that plays as effectively on the home screen as it does in the theater—maybe even better.

Shelf Talk: Although she hasn’t been as visible over the past few years as she was at the beginning of the decade, leading lady Judd is still a name that moves new release thrillers, as can be seen with the hot home theater hits Kiss the Girls, Double Jeopardy and the more recent Twisted. And cinephiles will be up for checking out the latest by director Friedkin, as Bug was considered a return-to-form by many. Additionally, Friedkin’s profile is on the higher side this season, with the French recently naming him an Officier de L’Order des Arts et des Lettres and his famous 1980 thriller Cruising making its DVD debut on Sept. 18.