The final film that the great William Castle worked on,
Bug is a positively daffy yet surprisingly effective chiller about mutant cockroaches unleashed by an earthquake. Thousands of killer roaches would be nightmarish enough, but these little creeps can form messages (in English) on the wall with their bodies and burn things with their legs. In one particularly nasty sequence, the roaches set a woman's hair/head on fire in the
Brady Bunch kitchen (yes, the actual kitchen). Every one of those delightfully unnerving cockroaches is pretty special in my book, though it seems that William Castle had an affinity for one named Hercules. In the last of his famous publicity stunts, Castle advertised a million-dollar insurance policy for Hercules, which makes him one important insect. Flame on, little fire bug!