Bugonia (what to expect)

Scorecard, Watchlist Worthy, New Pod Drop

Oct 31, 2025

🎃👻 Happy Halloween to all of our favorite freaks out there! 👻🎃

Remember, none of our favorite characters knew they were in a scary movie. So, if you’re like us and still have a lingering, irrational fear that there will be razor blades in your Halloween candy, don’t take any chances and heed Randy Meeks’ (Scream, 1996) three rules for surviving a horror movie:
1 - Never have sex
2 - Never drink or do drugs
3 - Never say “I’ll be right back”

Have fun out there!

Here’s what we have for you this week:

Concession Stand Scorecard: Bugonia
Watchlist Worthy: Ghost Face is back (for the 7th time)
New Pod Drop: A Spoilers conversation about one of the best directorial debuts

We go to the movies every week to let you know if the latest films are worth the price of admission and what you can expect. Always spoiler free.

This week’s movie - Bugonia

Letterboxd Description:

It all starts with something magnificent.
Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth..

Best Watched With

Conspiracy theorists and someone who apologizes too much

End Credit Thoughts

Bugonia is INSANE.

Notable Greek filmmaker, Yorgos Lanthimos, is running it back, once again, with another movie starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. This is Lanthimos’ fifth time collaborating with Stone, and second with Plemons, but the amount of synergy this crew has made us believe they’ve worked together for a lifetime. If you’re thinking another movie with the same actors, the same director, and a similar tone, how is that even profitable for Yorgos Lanthimos? Great question, let’s get into it.

The set designs and production juxtapose the world of conspiracy theorists with that of the high-powered, wealthy, and allegedly alien CEO. The respective contexts reveal the worldviews, how each character presents themselves in the world, and their underlying beliefs. Every element of this movie feels intentional. Especially the use of a wide-angle lens, which creates a surreal, otherworldly feeling.

Last year's Kinds of Kindness left us wanting more Jesse, more Emma, but maybe in a Yorgos world that is less bizarre and more comfortable. Bugonia heard our eyeball appetites rumbling, delivered a twelve-course meal, and we devoured every performance in every scene.

Plemons (Teddy) does not simply clothe himself in unprecedented belief in conspiracies, but becomes the essence of it. And the only person capable of going twelve rounds fighting the lost battle of reasoning with insanity is Emma Stone (Michelle). Considering the number of unreal performances from the pair, we feel ridiculous saying we are getting potentially career bests from them both.

Shoutout Aidan Delbis (Don), a young actor on the autism spectrum who plays Teddy’s cousin, for holding his own alongside this powerhouse cast. This is his first time acting in a feature, and what a hell of a film for a debut.

We expected a banging film score, and a banging film score is what we experienced. The music threads the needle of tone, emotion, tension, action, and dialogue with precision, sewing together the fabrics of filmmaking to create a vibrant tapestry. Bugonia is equal parts funny, stressful, disturbing, and absurd, and the music matches it step for step. The composer, Jerskin Fendrix, was only given three words—bees, basement, spaceship—and wasn’t allowed to see footage or read the script until he was finished with the score, which is also funny, stressful, disturbing, and absurd.1 Oh, we have to mention there are incredible needle drops that feel out of left field but perfect.

The movie left us thinking, “What in the actual hell?” but in the best way. This is one of the more approachable Yorgos movies. While all of them are memorable, we feel good about the lasting impression of these images. Well, most of them. There is a playfulness amidst the insanity and absurdity that made our theater smile and laugh out loud. Like Freddy Krueger dreaming of Edward Scissorhands and him trying to tie each other’s shoes, only to wake up with cut feet, fewer toes, and no friend.

Bugonia is the third Yorgos movie we’ve covered for Sweet & Condensed, but the first one where no one walked out before the ending. In fact, every person sat through the entire end credits until the lights chased them out.

So it seems the people agree with us.

Watch this one in the theaters.

Follow us on Letterboxd for our individual movie ratings:
@justjoshperez
@ericharrison
@kellyharrison
@newmexicodrew

Send this scorecard to a friend!

A movie one of us added to our Letterboxd watchlist this week.

Scream 7 directed by Kevin Williamson

I’ve been on a Scream binge for spooky season, so this might have some recency bias.

After declining to be in Scream 6, Neve Cambpell returns to the Scream Screen to reprise Sidney Prescott. A resurgence of a main character from the original might be a cash grab. Old characters, meet new characters, and some characters from six will not show face. But I lost my mind when Ghostface with a shotgun showed up in 6, so I’m all for new rules, broken rules, old rules, or no rules. Whatever this movie has to offer. Good or bad, I need closure after binging the franchise this month.

Added to my watchlist.

-jp :)

Letterboxd Description:

The seventh installment in the ‘Scream’ franchise. Plot TBA.

Also Directed by Kevin Williamson:
Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)

GET OUT: Spoilers #64

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
🎥 Watch this episode on YouTube

Josh and New Mexico Drew are closing spooky season by diving deep into Jordan Peele’s 2017 directorial debut, Get Out.

The guys discuss their first-time watches versus their recent rewatch, why comedians make great horror directors, and the standout scenes that make the film a modern classic. They also debate the film’s one glaring imperfection (hint: it involves camera gear) and revisit the stacked 2017 Oscar race.