Empire of the Ants
Dreamland Shores on the Florida coast, a thriving community waiting to happen, property developer Marilyn Fryser and less-than-enthused partner Charlie Pearson charting the boat grudgingly helmed by Dan Stokely to take prospective clients to view the area and see where the facilities will eventually be constructed, the pool, the marina, the tennis courts and golf course, and always the waves rolling across the sand and the sunrises.
Instead, what they find after the buffet, boozing, schmoozing and sniping is the result of illicitly dumped radioactive waste, a colony of mutated giant ants who surround and attack the terrified party, cutting them off from their only means of escape or communication, no reason to expect rescue and the only way out to trek through the swampy wilderness to the nearest river and paddle upstream.
Produced and directed by Bert I Gordon who also handled the variety of special effects techniques which create the Empire of the Ants from a script co-written with Jack Turley adapted from H G Wells’ 1905 short story of the same name, previously the inspiration for Saul Bass’ Phase IV, where that was an ambiguous and ambitious science fiction thriller this is a rampaging monster movie wearing the tattered clothes of survival eco-horror.
Starring Joan Collins and Robert Lansing, the expedition is whittled down to Marilyn and Dan alongside brave Joe, cowardly Larry, sanguine Margaret and resolute Coreen (John David Carson, Robert Pine, Jacqueline Scott and Pamela Susan Shoop), pursued by the hive mentality attuned to an unrelenting purpose even as they bicker, squabble and betray, poorly prepared for the situation as much as Wells could not have conceived of how his text would evolve, though it would please the old socialist that the folks getting munched are upmarket beach front real estate developers.
Some of the effects shots working better than others, mismatched background betraying the composite shots but the full-size ant props genuinely well constructed and menacing, there is little drama or progression in Empire of the Ants, the structure flawed and the survivors never once questioning how the situation came to be nor the threat of the collective intelligence brought to the fore, what might have been the most interesting aspect the arrival at the supposed safety of the town only to find the authorities indifferent.
The pheremonal control a thread which should have been woven in from the start, the question of cross-species efficacy is sidestepped as egregiously as the question of how long the ant colony has been mutating to allow them to grow and exert dominance over an entire town, but making its UK Blu-ray debut Eureka’s new edition of Empire of the Ants carries an introduction by uber-fan Chris Cooke and Kim Newman’s appreciation of Gordon’s diverse career, unjustly “labelled by his weaker films” of towering monsters and miniscule budgets.
Empire of the Ants will be available on Blu-ray from Eureka from Monday 22nd June
