Opening this week is Bug, a frightening new film by William Friedkin (The Exorcist). Ashley Judd and Mike Shannon are electrifying as two damaged souls in a seedy Oklahoma roach motel in Friedkin’s nightmarishly brilliant film version of the acclaimed play by Tracy Letts.

Judd plays the hard-drinking Agnes, haunted by her son’s disappearance years ago, and the repeated menacing phone calls (with no one on the line) that she assumes is her ex (Harry Connick Jr.), just released from jail and abusive as ever. Her girlfriend introduces her to Peter (Mike Shannon) a brooding drifter whom Agnes invites to spend the night. But she is soon drawn into his paranoid fantasies -- convinced that the government has infected his blood with mutant bugs. Soon the walls and ceiling are lined with tinfoil and fly strips and the couple’s descent into madness escalates into violence. Letts's play is like Sam Shepard on Special K, and Friedkin definitely has a feel for the dark side of this material. Judd gives a raw, shattering, Oscar-worthy performance and Shannon is just astonishing.