The term “bugonia” is an ancient one referring to the idea that bees could be spontaneously generated from the body of a dead animal, such as an ox.

Knowing that informs the experience of taking in “Bugonia,” the latest collaboration between acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos and gifted actor Emma Stone, who worked together on the Academy Award best picture nominees “The Favourite” (2018) and “Poor Things” (2023), as well as last year’s imperfect but enjoyable-enough “Kinds of Kindness.”

While closer in quality to “Kindness,” “Bugonia” — getting a wide theatrical release this week — is more captivating than that so-called “triptych fable.” This American adaptation of the 2003 Korean science-fiction black comedy “Save the Green Planet” pulls you in and demands your undivided attention, even as you sometimes want more from it.

Sure enough, “Bugonia” begins with a bee — and never keeps the pollinating wonders far from sight or, relatedly, out of mind — but it is more concerned with examining a world in which its inhabitants fall down Internet rabbit holes to become obsessed with conspiracy theories and who vilify those residing in a different ideological bubble from their own.

Played by Stone’s “Kindness” co-star Jesse Plemons, Teddy has fallen far down a rabbit hole, seemingly having convinced himself — and his younger cousin, Don (fun but unremarkable newcomer Aidan Delbis), a young man with a cognitive disability tied to an incident in the past — that aliens walk among us and are plotting the end of humankind.

Teddy believes one such “Andromedan” is Stone’s Michelle, the forceful CEO of a pharmaceutical company. For an alien, she seems rather concerned with corporate matters, such as ensuring employees — whose time apparently had been abused, causing a problem for the company — know that they should leave work early … if they can … but not if they have more work to do … as quotas must still be met.

“New era!” Michelle manages to exclaim, rather unconvincingly.

Teddy has been preparing Don and himself for an all-important mission, abstaining from vices and even undergoing chemical castration in the name of focus.

After hiding in bushes outside Michelle’s home, they snatch her, eventually and awkwardly, when she arrives home from work. As Teddy drives them away in her compact SUV, Teddy does as he’s told, shaving off her hair, which she could have used to communicate with her fellow Andromedans. Back at Teddy’s family home, they cover her in an anti-alien lotion before she awakens from having been knocked out. (You can’t be too careful with these extraterrestrials, of course.)

Once she regains consciousness, the stage is set for a battle of wits and wills between the highly intelligent and physically fierce but well-restrained Michelle and Teddy, who, it should be noted, carries a grudge against her company. She alternately works to convince him that he’s been fooled by online falsehoods and is, in fact, mentally ill and agrees that yes, she is an alien and compliments Teddy on his brilliance — anything to remove herself from this dangerous situation. He, on the other hand, remains steadfast in his belief that she is what he says, even if Don — who sounds a bit like Forrest Gump without the folksy sayings — doesn’t seem so convinced.

The clock is ticking for Teddy: A lunar eclipse, which, he says, would allow the Andromedan mothership to leave Earth’s orbit undetected; and, of course, a manhunt is on for Michelle, who stresses to Teddy her importance to the region given the high number of people her company employs.

A local cop (comedian Stavros Halkios), a player in a somewhat vague but obviously unpleasant chapter in Teddy’s past, is complicating matters for him by butting into his life as he’s holding Michelle in his basement.

Speaking of that unsettling setting, it is home to, among other things, a power-draining rig Teddy uses to “test” Michelle, much of the action takes place, and it becomes a pseudo-character. Screenwriter Will Tracy (“Succession,” “Mountainhead”) penned “Bugonia” early on in the pandemic as, he says in the film’s production notes, “We were locked down, and I was probably losing my mind a little bit in this little apartment in Brooklyn” — something easy to believe given how claustrophobic and hopeless the movie feels in stretches.

Although her work here is not in the class of her Oscar-winning performance in “Poor Things,” Stone is expectedly compelling in a role that becomes increasingly interesting as “Bugonia” progresses. Plemons (“Friday Night Lights,” “The Power of the Dog”) meanwhile, turns in uneven work, the actor never quite feeling quite right for the role but also far from negatively impacting the film.

Really, though, “Bugonia” is another showcase of the generally wonderful weirdness of Greek filmmaker Lanthimos, who continues to offer fare more accessible than earlier efforts such as “The Lobster” (2015) and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017).

Although not ultimately powered by the question of whether Michelle is a member of the human race, “Bugonia” nonetheless hits its stride once that question is finally answered, when music composed by Jerskin Fendrix (“Poor Things,” “Kinds of Kindness”) is used to impeccable effect.

Lanthimos turns himself loose in this final act, delivering scenes that undoubtedly only he could.

In the opening moments of “Bugonia,” Teddy, a beekeeper, talks about the relationship between a honeybee and a flower, one that is magnificent, complex and fragile. All of those adjectives could be used to describe “Bugonia,” which, while not as sweet as honey, does provide a unique form of nourishment.

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‘BUGONIA’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for bloody violent content including a suicide, grisly images and language)

Running time: 1:58

How to watch: In wide release Oct. 31

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