Empire of the Ants, 1977.
Directed by Bert I. Gordon.
Starring Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, John David Carson, Robert Pine, Brooke Palance.
SYNOPSIS:
Con artist Marilyn Fryser tries to sell phony real estate deals in an area that is overrun by giant ants.
Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) is a land developer who likes to let her staff know who pays the wages and gives the orders. She is trying to sell plots of land in an upcoming development in the Florida area and has organised a boat trip to show prospective buyers what she can offer. However, due to some dodgy dealers dumping barrels of radioactive waste in the ocean the material has washed up on the local beach and infected a colony of ants, turning them into giant monsters who attack the group of potential investors. Not only that, the queen ant uses pheromones to control the local population and make them provide the insects with sugar from the sugar plant. If it isn’t one thing…
Empire of the Ants is an incredibly silly movie, the kind of incredibly silly movie that followed in the wake of Jaws where animals and insects suddenly became huge, murderous or both. Of course, the movie is really a throwback to the 1950s sci-fi horrors of Cold War America, where radioactive goo of any kind made monsters out of everything it came into contact with and, despite the credit, is only loosely based on the H.G. Wells story of the same name, because in that book the ants were intelligent but not giants.
To be honest, these ones aren’t giant either as the special effects are mostly shots of regular-sized ants in their natural habitat blown up, rear projected or superimposed over photographs of the film set, or the filmmakers using false perspectives, but for the purposes of the film they are meant to be giant. For the close-ups the effects team created huge ant puppets and models to swing and prod at the actors from the side of the screen and it is all rather hilarious for totally the wrong reasons, but seeing Joan Collins doing her best to look like she is not doing it only for the money is worth it, as every time she gets covered in swamp water you can almost see her silently counting to ten to calm herself down.
So, we have our checklist of characters who go to the island for their day out of free champagne and resisting giving Joan Collins all their life savings, but we never really get to know any of them. There’s an elderly couple – so you know their fate straightaway – and another older couple who complain about everything and just want a free ride. Again, it is all very predictable if you have any knowledge of these creature features, and even if you don’t then just look at the cast as these aren’t young, muscular heroic types and it doesn’t take a lot of working out who is going to be ticked off said checklist and in what order.
But despite all of the nonsense, Empire of the Ants is incredibly entertaining viewing if you just let it be nothing more than a daft monster movie. This being the 1970s there are nods to shady business and corruption, as well as the ever-present threat of chemical warfare, and if you want to view them as some sort of social commentary then you may do so, although that is really stretching it. Director Bert I. Gordon – or Mr B.I.G., as he was known – was an old hand at low budget giant monster movies and Empire of the Ants came relatively late in his career, so it was highly unlikely he was making some sort of statement and just wanted to show off some weird special effects in a movie that, if nothing else, is a bit of a laugh.
Despite its lowbrow status, Empire of the Ants is presented on Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment as part of their Eureka Classics range and, if truth be told, when the subject of monster movies from the 1970s comes up – and if it doesn’t then it should – Empire of the Ants is one of the more memorable titles, not only for the special effects but also because, despite the silliness of it, Bert I. Gordon could make a solid movie with not a lot and it is well put together. Coming with appreciations from author/critic Kim Newman and filmmaker Chris Cooke, Empire of the Ants is worthy of being part of the Eureka Classics range, just don’t take it too seriously.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
