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Bugged!
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NUMBER 1 BESTSELLING “STAR THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK” COMES AN UNFORGETTABLE SCIENCE-HORROR CLASSIC!Bugged! begins at college reunion in a moldering mansion in the midst of an isolated swamp. Howard Barks, accompanied by his daughter Karen, is looking forward to seeing his old college chums when his car stops dead. Howard gets out to see what the trouble is, when hundreds of insects swarm over him and strip the flesh from his bones.Ronald Reid, owner of the mansion begins to grow concerned for the Barks when hours pass and they fail to arrive and sends his butler Grollman to find them. Grollman discovers their car, with Howard’s skeleton, parked beside the road, and his daughter Karen alive inside the locked car. Thinking what has happened is a freak occurrence, the rest of the alums don’t realize the horrors are just beginning until each member is attacked by swarms of insects and eaten alive.“An affectionate parody of … horror stories …quite bloody and gruesome … a good chunk told from the point of view of the bugs … All in all, a strange and unique little book." –Amazon verified reviewDonald F. Glut is the author of the Number 1 nationwide bestseller, Star The Empire Strikes Back, which won a Galaxy Award. He is also a prolific, Inkpot Award winning comic book author, who has written for Marvel, DC, and Gold Key Comics, and a Rondo Classic Horror Award winner for his movie Tales of Frankenstein. As a novelist, television and comic book writer, Glut has been involved with popular franchises such as The Monkees, Tarzan, Spider-Man, Star Wars, Transformers, Captain America, G.I. Joe, Vampirella, Masters of the Universe, The Flintstones, Johnny Quest and others. The prolific Mr. Glut has also carved a niche in the film world as an executive-producer, writer and director of “traditional-style” horror movies featuring iconic monsters, among the most recent Tales of Frankenstein, Dances with Werewolves and Blood Scarab. All of which makes him the ideal person to write a classic horror thriller and present it in slick, polished, high velocity pulp fiction prose. Donald F. Glut is the author of three previous novels, including the thrillers, Jawbreaker! and Bugged!, now made available for the first time in four decades by Strange Particle Press.
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
3 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Donald F. Glut
237 books50 followersDONALD F. GLUT has been professionally active in both the entertainment and publishing industries since 1966.
Born in Pecos, Texas, Don grew up in Chicago, IL. At age nine, already bitten by the film-making “bug,” he made Diplodocus at Large, the first of 41 amateur movies featuring dinosaurs, human monsters (Frankenstein’s Monster, Teenage Werewolf, etc.) and superheroes (Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, etc.) Some of these films made during the late 1960s (e.g., Spy Smasher vs. the Purple Monster) were eventually shown in theatres and on TV.
Moving to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, Don professionally entered show business as an “extra” (a POW) in the movie Von Ryan’s Express (1965), the first of several such “roles.” He began his professional writing career in 1966, writing articles for and finally editing the magazine Modern Monsters. In 1967, after graduating from the University of Southern California with a BA degree (for Cinema) in Letters, Arts and Sciences, Don worked as a musician, singer and songwriter in The Penny Arkade, a rock band produced by “Monkee” Michael Nesmith. Shortly after that he briefly furthered his acting career, having a speaking role in a national television commercial starring Dick Clark.
However, most of Don’s professional life has been as a freelance writer. To date he has authored numerous motion picture and television scripts (Shazam!, Land of the Lost, and animation, e.g., Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, Transformers, G.I.Joe, Duck Tales, Jonny Quest, X-Men, others), comic-book scripts (Captain America, Tarzan, etc., including creating for Gold Key Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods), more than 35 novels and nonfiction books, also numerous short stories, articles, songs, album-liner notes, etc. The Dinosaur Dictionary (1972) and Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (1997), two of Don’s many non-fiction books about dinosaurs, both were listed by the American Library Association among the best reference books of their years of publication. With The Dinosaur Dictionary Don created the much-imitated book format based upon an alphabetical listing of dinosaur names. Perhaps Don is best known for his novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the nation’s No. 1 bestseller for almost two months, which to date (still in print) has sold over 3.5 million copies. In 1982 he created characters and back story for Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” toy line. Among his more recent books is Chomper, an entry in the popular “Dinotopia” series.
Don produced, wrote and directed various videos (including the documentaries Dinosaur Movies and Hollywood Goes Ape! and the music-video compilation Dinosaur Tracks®), theatre and movie projects. He has worked as a consultant on numerous other video, film and TV projects, and was “Dinosaur Consultant” on Roger Corman’s movie Carnosaur (1993).
In 1990, Don and Pete Von Sholly founded Fossil Records, which has already produced a half dozen albums. These include Dinosaur Tracks®, More Dinosaur Tracks® and Dinosaur Tracks® Again, featuring paleontology-related rock music written mostly by Don (Dinodon Music/BMI), performed by Don and Pete (as the Iridium Band).
More recently, Don became president of Frontline Entertainment (www.frontlinefilms.com), for which he wrote, directed and co-produced the comedy/fantasy motion picture Dinosaur Valley Girls™, which has already achieved “cult movie” status, and Before La Brea, a documentary commissioned by the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles. In 2000, he was commissioned by Irena Belle Productions to direct the movie The Vampire Hunters Club, featuring an all-star genre cast.
Born in Pecos, Texas, Don grew up in Chicago, IL. At age nine, already bitten by the film-making “bug,” he made Diplodocus at Large, the first of 41 amateur movies featuring dinosaurs, human monsters (Frankenstein’s Monster, Teenage Werewolf, etc.) and superheroes (Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, etc.) Some of these films made during the late 1960s (e.g., Spy Smasher vs. the Purple Monster) were eventually shown in theatres and on TV.
Moving to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California, Don professionally entered show business as an “extra” (a POW) in the movie Von Ryan’s Express (1965), the first of several such “roles.” He began his professional writing career in 1966, writing articles for and finally editing the magazine Modern Monsters. In 1967, after graduating from the University of Southern California with a BA degree (for Cinema) in Letters, Arts and Sciences, Don worked as a musician, singer and songwriter in The Penny Arkade, a rock band produced by “Monkee” Michael Nesmith. Shortly after that he briefly furthered his acting career, having a speaking role in a national television commercial starring Dick Clark.
However, most of Don’s professional life has been as a freelance writer. To date he has authored numerous motion picture and television scripts (Shazam!, Land of the Lost, and animation, e.g., Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends, Transformers, G.I.Joe, Duck Tales, Jonny Quest, X-Men, others), comic-book scripts (Captain America, Tarzan, etc., including creating for Gold Key Dagar the Invincible, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor and Tragg and the Sky Gods), more than 35 novels and nonfiction books, also numerous short stories, articles, songs, album-liner notes, etc. The Dinosaur Dictionary (1972) and Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia (1997), two of Don’s many non-fiction books about dinosaurs, both were listed by the American Library Association among the best reference books of their years of publication. With The Dinosaur Dictionary Don created the much-imitated book format based upon an alphabetical listing of dinosaur names. Perhaps Don is best known for his novelization of the movie The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the nation’s No. 1 bestseller for almost two months, which to date (still in print) has sold over 3.5 million copies. In 1982 he created characters and back story for Mattel’s “Masters of the Universe” toy line. Among his more recent books is Chomper, an entry in the popular “Dinotopia” series.
Don produced, wrote and directed various videos (including the documentaries Dinosaur Movies and Hollywood Goes Ape! and the music-video compilation Dinosaur Tracks®), theatre and movie projects. He has worked as a consultant on numerous other video, film and TV projects, and was “Dinosaur Consultant” on Roger Corman’s movie Carnosaur (1993).
In 1990, Don and Pete Von Sholly founded Fossil Records, which has already produced a half dozen albums. These include Dinosaur Tracks®, More Dinosaur Tracks® and Dinosaur Tracks® Again, featuring paleontology-related rock music written mostly by Don (Dinodon Music/BMI), performed by Don and Pete (as the Iridium Band).
More recently, Don became president of Frontline Entertainment (www.frontlinefilms.com), for which he wrote, directed and co-produced the comedy/fantasy motion picture Dinosaur Valley Girls™, which has already achieved “cult movie” status, and Before La Brea, a documentary commissioned by the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Los Angeles. In 2000, he was commissioned by Irena Belle Productions to direct the movie The Vampire Hunters Club, featuring an all-star genre cast.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 28, 2024
Wasn't expecting this to be a mad scientist whodunit where the victims are murdered via swarms of insects, including ants, dragonflies and bedbugs. At one point, a man is "beaten" to death by the velvety wings of moths. In a horde, even mild insects can kill -- apparently.
Despite the gnarly premise, gore is not especially descriptive. This makes me consider it a mystery instead of a horror novel. Too bad, since I am very fascinated to learn, in graphic detail, how death by butterflies and moths would work.
Despite the gnarly premise, gore is not especially descriptive. This makes me consider it a mystery instead of a horror novel. Too bad, since I am very fascinated to learn, in graphic detail, how death by butterflies and moths would work.
July 22, 2023
I thought this was going to be a campy 'animal attacks' novel with bugs, but Glut instead gave us an amazingly campy mad scientist story with bugs as the tools of his revenge. I do not know if Glut intended this to be camp; so many attempts to write camp just fail. This is more of a cult classic than anything else.
Bugged! starts with Karen, our main protagonist, in a car with her dad on his way to a 25 year reunion of his frat brothers. Karen, a stunning young model, just happened to tag along as she was facing a boring night at home. The reunion is being held at one Dr. Reid's house out in the middle of some bog. Anyway, driving along the car is suddenly attacked by bugs; bugs by the thousands! Forced to pull over as the windscreen is covered in goo, Karen's dad gets out to clean a hole so he can see and the bugs come again! "My God! They're eating me alive!" Strangely, the bugs do not bother Karen, but they really put a hurtin on ole dad!
A super creepy butler soon shows up, saying he is just returning from getting more booze for the party and takes Karen to the old mansion where the reunion is in full swing. Karen calls the cops and yeah, they finally believe her story when they find the body. Why would bugs do such a thing? While Karen is busy falling for the lead cop who investigated it (cheesy romance at its finest!), the other frat brothers start dying one by one via massive bug foo. Something clearly is going on!
Bugged incorporates a vast array of cliches, cardboard characters and a tropey plot; for me, is just so bad it became really fun. This could have been a bad b-flick made in the 50s along the lines of Them, but the villain and plot reminded more of Austin Powers and Dr. Evil. You have to be in the right mood for this one, but what a gas! 4 buggy stars!
Bugged! starts with Karen, our main protagonist, in a car with her dad on his way to a 25 year reunion of his frat brothers. Karen, a stunning young model, just happened to tag along as she was facing a boring night at home. The reunion is being held at one Dr. Reid's house out in the middle of some bog. Anyway, driving along the car is suddenly attacked by bugs; bugs by the thousands! Forced to pull over as the windscreen is covered in goo, Karen's dad gets out to clean a hole so he can see and the bugs come again! "My God! They're eating me alive!" Strangely, the bugs do not bother Karen, but they really put a hurtin on ole dad!
A super creepy butler soon shows up, saying he is just returning from getting more booze for the party and takes Karen to the old mansion where the reunion is in full swing. Karen calls the cops and yeah, they finally believe her story when they find the body. Why would bugs do such a thing? While Karen is busy falling for the lead cop who investigated it (cheesy romance at its finest!), the other frat brothers start dying one by one via massive bug foo. Something clearly is going on!
Bugged incorporates a vast array of cliches, cardboard characters and a tropey plot; for me, is just so bad it became really fun. This could have been a bad b-flick made in the 50s along the lines of Them, but the villain and plot reminded more of Austin Powers and Dr. Evil. You have to be in the right mood for this one, but what a gas! 4 buggy stars!
April 22, 2019
Members of a college fraternity have a twenty-year reunion at a dark, decrepit mansion deep in a swamp. Soon after, each member is attacked by swarms of insects in the most annoyingly apropos way possible. (ie: A butterfly collector is lured to his death by a butterfly. An army major is attacked by army ants.) Could the culprit be the entomology genius who had been tormented by the frat brothers back in their college days? Of course it is, dummy!
Despite having been published in 1974, Bugged! isn't so much a '70s vintage animals-run-amok story as it is a murder mystery more in the style of old Bela Lugosi serials from the 1930s. It's characters are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, the plot clunky and obvious, and the "mystery" is given away in the second chapter. Only it's graphic descriptions of the victims being nibbled to death by bugs lends any interest to an otherwise bland, colorless story.
Despite having been published in 1974, Bugged! isn't so much a '70s vintage animals-run-amok story as it is a murder mystery more in the style of old Bela Lugosi serials from the 1930s. It's characters are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, the plot clunky and obvious, and the "mystery" is given away in the second chapter. Only it's graphic descriptions of the victims being nibbled to death by bugs lends any interest to an otherwise bland, colorless story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 1, 2011
The only reason I didn't give this book 1 star is that it was so bad it was funny in most places..
May 2, 2023
This book reminds me of all of the 1950's creature features, focusing on species gone mad. In this case, they have more than a little help! The first chapter of the book finds a man and his daughter traveling through the swamps to attend a reunion with his fraternity brothers. However, his car is soon overrun by a hoard of insects. When he gets out to clean off the windshield, the insects quickly devour him!
From there, things just get crazier. It seems that one of the "Brothers" is out for revenge and they are slowly killed off in horrific ways by insects. Part "Frogs" and part "And Then There Were None", the culprit is obvious from the start. I am not sure when this book was written, but it had an old school vibe about it with the sexist attitudes and male chauvinism.
The narrator did a pretty good job with the story he was given. All in all, it was entertaining, but definitely not great literature. I would recommend this only for those who really love those old Sci-Fi flicks we used to watch when we were kids.
From there, things just get crazier. It seems that one of the "Brothers" is out for revenge and they are slowly killed off in horrific ways by insects. Part "Frogs" and part "And Then There Were None", the culprit is obvious from the start. I am not sure when this book was written, but it had an old school vibe about it with the sexist attitudes and male chauvinism.
The narrator did a pretty good job with the story he was given. All in all, it was entertaining, but definitely not great literature. I would recommend this only for those who really love those old Sci-Fi flicks we used to watch when we were kids.
May 9, 2023
🎧 Can horror be fun? Yesss! (From the author of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back)
This novella reminded me of an installment of Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow!
Bugs Gone Wild!
That’s all you need to know. Fun, scary romp. I was looking for something to creep me out and this was just the ticket. Bugs, yuck!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This novella reminded me of an installment of Tales From the Crypt or Creepshow!
Bugs Gone Wild!
That’s all you need to know. Fun, scary romp. I was looking for something to creep me out and this was just the ticket. Bugs, yuck!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
October 30, 2023
Not one to read/listen to if you're even a little bit afraid of insects or bugs. Well written and great narration.
March 3, 2024
My review is here:
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https://hitmewithyourbookreview.blogs...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews