Bugged (1996), writer-director Ronald K. Armstrong’s sole feature film, looks and feels like the work of a group of young, inexperienced, and eager friends getting together and making a movie. Among its humble triumphs is how it makes you feel like you’re part of the fun rather than pushed out into the periphery, like someone who’s just walked into a friend of a friend’s party. 

Pitched by a film-school-fresh Armstrong to the ultimately receptive B-movie studio Troma Entertainment, the horror comedy begins with an exposition-heavy prologue that plays out like The Fly (1958) in miniature. Then it moves into a narrative with more in common with Ghostbusters (1984). It’s set into motion by Divine (Priscilla K. Basque), a breakup-fresh poet famous enough to be recognized by some members of the public, who calls a scrappy extermination business to help her rid of the creepy crawlies that keep multiplying in the countryside house she’s just bought to escape the din of the city.

The company sends over two younger employees, Dave and Steve (Armstrong and Jeff Lee), to handle the problem. But thanks to a contrived-but-funny delivery snafu, the gallons of newly delivered insecticide they think they’re touting are, unbeknownst to them, not the classic insect killer on which they’ve come to rely but vats of a concoction a genetic-mutation-fixated, mad scientist-esque doctor has come up with. The pair’s stop by Divine’s house is quick and friendly, elongated somewhat by some genuinely sweet flirting between Divine and Dave. (He’s a devoted fan of his pretty client’s body of work.) But any semblances of effectiveness are gone the second Divine awakens the next morning. One of the bugs, now chihuahua-sized, is sprawled out on top of her, its eyes and mouth wide with hunger. 

All of the beasts seen in Bugged are either glazed figurines or snarling puppets; their homespun look is like a lower-budget cousin of the not-so-cuddly creatures of Critters (1986) or Gremlins (1984). Bugged, both in its overall construction and creature design, is not nearly as sophisticated as those latter two movies; it had such little money to work with that it was shot over a period of three years, its sporadic stretches of production beginning the moment there was enough money to run with for at least a few days. But its wide-eyed sincerity makes its shortcomings forgivable. (That doesn’t apply, though, to the finale: the lack of budget basically ensures that, even if things technically close out with a bang, it still registers like a whimper.) 

Bugged is clearly the work of an excited young filmmaker who hasn’t yet developed — and unfortunately wouldn’t really get to develop — a feel for fostering suspense but has a strong enough hold on slapstick comedy and characterization to keep you amused. I’d like to see where Armstrong might have gone had this not been the only feature-length project he’d have a real shot at. But on its own terms, Bugged, also notable for being one of few times the white-leaning monster-movie subgenre was dominated by a Black cast and creative team, is a charmingly homemade success.