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Bug Buster Reviews

Most attempts to recapture the Big Bug B-movie magic of yesteryear are either impossibly camp or gratuitously graphic, but this modestly budgeted effort has a certain low key charm. WGil (Bernie Kopell) and Cammie Griffin (Anne Lockhart) buy a resort inn in rustic Mountain View and move there with their daughter Shannon (Katherine Heigl). But they get much more than they bargained for: In a nearby cave, a toxic giant roach awakens from hibernation and starts biting locals like beach bunny Veronica Hart (Meredith Salenger). Sheriff Carlson (James Doohan) orders his deputy, Bo (Ty O' Neal), to close the beach; the Griffins fret about losing business, which is exactly what Carlson wants. Well aware of the giant cockroach's presence, Carlson plans to purchase Mountain View at fire-sale prices after the creature has terrorized the area for a while. Meanwhile, town veterinarian Laurie Casey (Brenda Doumani) sends a DNA sample from a fish containing a roach larva to Dr. Fujimoto (George Takei), who informes her that she's uncovered a new strain of indestructible roach. Veronica shows signs of infestation like the fish and dies, followed by Gil and Cammie meet a similar death-by-infestation. Dissatisfied with the way the Sheriff is handling the insect invasion, Deputy Bo sends for TV-exterminator General George (Randy Quaid), who surmises that the big roach requires a dark hiding place and heads for the beach's largest cave. This cheap but entertaining creature feature is a vast improvement over director Lorenzo Doumani's FOLLOW YOUR HEART (1998). He keeps the film's gross-out elements in check and even throws in a few plot surprises. Ellory Elkayem's THEY NEST (2000) tells a strikingly similar story, without Doumani's humorous touches.