Despite their small size, insects are scary. Too many legs, fast skittering, and a general unpredictability mean that the presence of bugs tends to put us immediately on edge. Leave it to horror to twist the knife further and exploit our worst fears with movies featuring nightmarish, mutated visions of insects.
With spring right around the corner, the slow winter thaw means an incoming spike in the bug population. That inspires this week’s streaming picks: killer insect horror movies designed to get under your skin. These titles feature creepy crawlies that mutate or unleash body horror and are mostly off the beaten path.
Here’s where to stream them this week.
For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.
Bite – Fawesome, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Shout! TV
A goopy insectoid body horror movie in the vein of The Fly. Casey (Elma Begovic) ignores a bug bite received on a bachelorette trip with her best friends in Costa Rica. Once home, however, that bug bite causes bizarre body changes. As she transforms into an insect-like creature with murderous impulses, it coincides with revelations about her friendships and fiancé that lead to a gruesome implosion of Casey’s life as she once knew it. The love triangle is never as interesting as Casey’s gag-inducing transformation, which is worth the price of admission thanks to an emphasis on goopy practical effects.
Blue Monkey – Fawesome, Tubi
Despite its title, this outrageous ’80s creature feature doesn’t have any monkeys, not even blue ones. Instead, it follows a hospital under siege by a larval insect monster that bursts forth from a patient and goes on an infectious rampage. Director William Fruet, who also helmed numerous episodes of the Goosebumps TV series, Friday the 13th: The Series, and Killer Party, brings the zany fun. If you’re in the mood for giant insectoid B-movie entertainment that favors goopy chaos over logic, well, this one delivers the goods.
“Kill it with fire!” tends to be a typical response to an infestation, but this roach feature, co-written by William Castle and directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Jaws 2), reframes the phrase through the bugs’ perspective. As in, this particular mutant strain of cockroaches can set things on fire once an earthquake frees them. Nature would’ve sorted itself out – these roaches aren’t used to living on the surface – except a scientist decides to breed them with a modern roach. Whatever could go wrong? As horror has taught us countless times, everything could and does go catastrophically awry. Super-bred intelligent cockroaches for the win.
Mimic – Kanopy
Guillermo del Toro’s sophomore feature was set in a Manhattan where cockroaches were the harbinger of a deadly disease that targeted children. Under the CDC’s orders, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) creates a new hybrid species derived from termite and mantis DNA to eradicate the roaches and die off shortly after. Only they don’t die. Unbeknownst to anyone, Tyler’s Judas breed evolves into human-sized creatures with the ability to mimic their prey: humans. Mimic answers the question of just how lethal insects could be if they were large enough, and it’s rendered even more skin-crawling thanks to the grimy underground setting.
There’s Something Wrong with the Children – MGM+, Prime Video
A weekend cabin getaway in the woods among friends leads to trouble when the children sneak away in the middle of the night, only to return the next day with peculiar new personalities. If only the adults could get over their own drama to notice. That breeds tension and terror as Benjamin toys with structure and perspective. Bugs play a crucial role in this horror movie about creepy kids from director Roxanne Benjamin (Body at Brighton Rock, Southbound) and screenwriters T.J. Cimfel and David White. To reveal more, though, would ruin one of the film’s most fun surprises.
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