Is Bugonia the most disturbing satire yet from Yorgos Lanthimos? Inside the alien conspiracy kidnap thriller

Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has made his name by placing characters in absurd, tightly controlled environments, and his latest film, “Bugonia,” continues that tradition — only this time the confinement is both literal and symbolic.

In earlier works like The Lobster (where singles must find a partner or become animals) or The Favourite (set in a palace rife with power plays), Lanthimos traps his characters within worlds that obey their own warped logic. With Bugonia, he plunges into even darker territory — a pharmaceutical-industry CEO is abducted by conspiracy-obsessed men, convinced she’s an alien out to destroy Earth. Based on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, the remake amplifies the paranoia and social commentary for our own digital-age moment.

Emma Stone plays Michelle Fuller, the draconian boss of a major pharma firm, while Jesse Plemons is Teddy Gatz, a reclusive man who drags his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) into a basement kidnapping scheme. Their logic: Michelle must be an alien because her company’s experimental drugs have caused extraordinary harm — and they’re going to force her to reckon with her “real” self.

Lanthimos and screenwriter Will Tracy lean into the claustrophobic basement setting as something more than just backdrop — it becomes a psychological cage. Teddy’s convictions, supplemented by internet-fuelled radicalisation, chemical castration of his cousin, and allegories of hive-mind bees (the title itself invokes the ancient belief of spontaneous generation of bees from ox carcasses) all hint at a world in which the external chaos of our times is internalised and dramatized.

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2025 and hit theatres starting October 24. Critics are divided: some hail it as a bold commentary on conspiracy culture, male insecurity, corporate capitalism and eco-collapse; others argue the style overpowers substance, or that the twists undermine earlier ideas.

What makes Bugonia simultaneously compelling and uncomfortable is how it mirrors real-world anxieties: the sense of isolation, online radicalisation (“I did my own research”), corporate betrayal of workers and environment, and the collapse of meaning. Lanthimos doesn’t soften the blow: the torture scenes (electrodes, chains, basements) are deliberately gruelling, and you leave the film still inside Teddy’s twisted worldview — because Lanthimos wants you to feel trapped.

Stone, known for shifting seamlessly between genres, gives Michelle a cold precision, yet begins to reflect the absurdity around her. Plemons plays Teddy with a blend of haunted determination and manic fervour — someone who thinks he is saving the world even while committing violence. Their dynamic is a study in power inversion: the CEO becomes captive, the worker becomes persecutor, reality becomes specious.

Yet some viewers may bristle at the film’s deliberate unpleasantness. It doesn’t offer the catharsis or redemption of more traditional satires: instead it leaves you in the mire of its own design. That may be the point — in a world of digital echo-chambers and conspiracies, Lanthimos seems to say, escape isn’t heroism, it’s survival.

Whether Bugonia becomes a celebrated masterpiece or a polarising oddity, it firmly reinforces Lanthimos’ commitment to unsettling storytelling and genre-bending style. For audiences ready to be challenged — rather than comforted — it offers a cinematic ride worth the risk.

FAQs

Q1. What is Bugonia about?
It follows a pharmaceutical CEO who is abducted by conspiracy-obsessed men convinced she’s an alien. The story escalates into a critique of corporate, societal and ecological collapse.

Q2. Who made Bugonia and who stars in it?
The film is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, written by Will Tracy, and stars Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis.

Q3. Is Bugonia a remake?
Yes — it is an English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan

Q4. When was it released?
It premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2025 and began its theatrical release on October 24, 2025 (wider from October 31).

Q5. Is Bugonia appropriate for all viewers?
No. It contains intense psychological violence, torture scenes, and disturbing imagery. It is intended for mature audiences.