Director: Bert I. Gordon
Script: Bert I. Gordon & Sark Turley
Cast: Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, John David Carson, Albert Salmi, Robert Pine, Pam Shoop, Jacqualine Scott, Tom Fadden
Running time: 90 minutes
Year: 1977
Certificate: 12
Empire of the Ants was a film that I really wanted to go and see at the cinema back in the day. I remember walking past the Odeon, in Worcester, aged nine or ten, and being drawn towards the film’s poster artwork. Unfortunately, for me, my dad was in no mood to stop to let me gawp at the artistically arranged, exaggerated insectoid menace, plus he had no intention of actually taking me to see what was then an A certificated movie. Fast forward a couple of decades and I finally caught up with said movie and found it somewhat disappointing.
Another couple of decades on and here I am reviewing Bert I. Gordon’s very loose adaptation of H. G. Wells’ Empire of the Ants. So, was it still a disappointment or has it improved with age, like certain memories?
The plot is pretty straightforward. Following the illegal dumping of radioactive waste in the sea, a number of canisters are washed up on the beach of a remote part of the Florida Keys. Sometime later ambitious real estate developer Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) brings a group of wannabe investors to the proposed area of land where her company intends to build a luxury housing project. The group seems to be mostly filled with people who are just along for the free ride and lunch, and are mostly there as cannon fodder for the giant ants. After the initial character introductions, done in a bland TV movie kind of way, the investor group set off on a tour of the island with Marilyn singing the praises of the area. The fact that it’s a very windy, cold looking day makes for some amusing hair issues and plenty of grimaces from a game cast pretending to be enjoying themselves.
However, just when you think you’re watching the wrong movie, and might have mistakenly pressed play on a seventies-styled disaster film, Gordon gives us just what we wanted, namely some giant ant action. The first victim is a Victor Meldrew type of guy out to prove that the real estate agent is really a fraud and con artist, and he’s attacked once he’s dug up some pipe work that seems to have little purpose apart from making it appear that building work has already begun on the plot of mostly swamp land that Marilyn is trying hard to flog.
The youngest members of the group go looking for the missing couple and run into some ants, but manage to make an escape. However, soon none of the group is safe and they make a break for it on a small boat, after the ants inadvertently caused the destruction of the tour’s main sea-going boat. It soon becomes apparent that the ants are actually herding the group in one direction, towards a huge sugar cane processing plant on the edge of the everglades. What the survivors find there is incredible and crazy in equal measure…
Empire of the Ants might have a lot of issues, including bad dialogue, dubious acting, dodgy VFX and an obviously low budget, but it makes up for it by being very entertaining, especially once the initial set up is done and dusted. The first ant attack happens at 28 minutes so I can recommend the final hour of the film, for sure. Sadly, most of the ant attacks are shot using a shaky-cam style methodology, obviously to help hide the poorly made ants, and these can be annoying to watch at times.
Joan Collins does her best with a pretty thankless role, but she always plays bitchy entitled types very well and her supporting actors try their best to look suitably menaced by back-projection ants and scruffy-looking ant models that they can physically ‘act’ with. Actor Robert Pine, who plays a cowardly misogynist in the movie, recalls (in a recent issue of Infinity magazine) the film shoot lasting for about four weeks, in Florida, and them all being more concerned about being attacked by real-life alligators than by fake giant ants! To compensate, Joan was a pleasure to work with and was an excellent scrabble player, apparently.
The central theme of insects turning the tables on humans and gaining a form of mind control over them, so they help feed the ants and protect them, is a great one, and is based in reality as some species of ant do indeed use pheromones to control other insects to do their bidding. And this is all explained in a sort of documentary section right at the beginning of the film, which I guess was meant to lend the film some kind of gravitas before all kinds of craziness kicks off.
I think my first viewing of the film had been marred by my expecting too much from a movie that I’d excitedly anticipated for a long time, but now, with a bit more perspective I found myself enjoying it more than I’d expected, hence can cautiously recommend it to fans of giant animal movies – you know you’re out there!
Extras include:
The Big Picture (18 mins) – An interview with film critic extraordinaire, Kim Newman, who provides a nice potted history about producer//writer/director Bert I. Gordon, who became best-known for his giant monster movies. There’s a nice array of film posters and stills to help illustrate the interview, which references Food of the Gods too, Gordon’s other H.G. Wells adaptation.
Radio spot (1 min) – Replete with the film’s tag line: ‘For they shall inherit the Earth – Sooner than you think!’
Original Theatrical Trailer (2.19 mins) – This reminds us that it’s a Samuel Z. Arkoff production and shows a bit too much of the film and gives away the main plot ‘twist’, unfortunately.
