Bugonia
January 4, 2026
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW:
Universal;
Thriller;
Box Office $17.69 million;
$26.99 DVD, $35.99 Blu-ray, $44.99 UHD BD, $58.99 UHD Steelbook;
Rated ‘R’ for bloody violent content including a suicide, grisly images and language.
Stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias.
The latest twisted examination of the human condition from director Yorgos Lanthimos delivers a tense battle of wills at the nexus of conspiracy culture and corporate power.
Jesse Plemons stars as Teddy, a beekeeper who believes a local pharmaceutical company is killing off the bees. He convinces his autistic cousin (Aidan Delbis) to help him kidnap the company’s CEO, Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone), claiming she is actually an alien from Andromeda posing as a human as part of a plan to destroy humanity.
They shave her head as part of Teddy’s theory that it will prevent her from communicating with her mothership, and torture her in their basement in hopes of her revealing the truth and arranging for him to negotiate with the aliens during an upcoming lunar eclipse. She, of course, denies his claims, but is savvy enough to toy with him as she bides her time waiting for an opportunity to escape.
It turns out Teddy’s mother (Alicia Silverstone) is in a coma following a drug trial conducted by the company, and Michelle accuses Teddy of concocting a delusional conspiracy as part of an elaborate revenge scheme.
Stone and Plemmons are terrific in their verbal tête-à-tête, escalating the stakes as his frustration with her grows. However, when things turn dark and ugly and Teddy seems to be at his most unhinged, the film flips the narrative, leaving the audience in a state of bewilderment, unsure of what to believe until the end. A second viewing is almost essential, painting the film in a new light without dulling its effectiveness.
The screenplay by Will Tracy is based on a 2003 South Korean filmed called Save the Green Planet! For his English-language remake, Lanthimos changed the title to reference bugonia, a mythological belief that bees generated from the carcasses of dead cows, which serves a metaphorical concept explored in the film of life being sustained by decay.
Bugonia was shot on eight-perf 35 mm film with VistaVision cameras, giving it a gritty texture that enhances the audience’s anxiety over the situation. But Lanthimos subverts the drama of the psychological battle with some of his trademark visual flair, such as playing into the fringe conspiracy motif by depicting the Earth as flat. Stone’s transformation is particularly effective, her shaved head and grim lighting giving her an otherworldly sheen that only helps fuel Teddy’s speculations.
The disc and digital editions of the film include the 23-minute featurette “The Birth of the Bees: The Making of Bugonia,” a typical reflection on the production from the filmmakers and cast.
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