Two police officers on patrol in the New Mexico desert come across a little girl, who is roaming around by herself and in a complete state of shock. Soon afterwards, they discover a destroyed trailer and convenience store, wondering who or what could have caused the damage. At first, signs point to a potential murderer, but a local FBI agent dismisses that notion when they notice spilled bowls of sugar at the locations, along with no real valuables stolen. With the assistance of some entomologists called in to help investigate the crime, the group of people find the true culprit: giant ants, mutated by atomic testing.
As a kid, I remember seeing plenty of trailers for this one around the time that I was starting to get into the "Kaiju Eiga" genre, but somehow never got around to seeing it until now. While the Japanese made the influential and impacting Gojira, we, the Americans, ran wild with variations more on the silly side of things, including films with gila monsters, praying mantises, shrews, and eventually ants. Honestly, I'm kind of happy I saw this now as opposed to when I was a kid. It isn't as rampant with monster action as I would have thought it'd be, but it sort of works better because of it. The tone throughout most of the movie is more akin to a murder mystery than a horror film, something I didn't expect but ended up liking.
These films are usually notorious for one of two things; hokey acting and laughable looking creatures. Surprisingly, this one isn't overbearing with either, at least compared to some of the shlock I've seen before. I thought the actor playing the FBI agent was pretty wooden at times, but everyone else was at least showing that they were there to work. The effects are kind of hit or miss, with the best shot of the ants being the very first two or three times we see them. For 50s monster props, they looked pretty menacing. The queen ants though...yikes. Was it too much to afford something that wasn't cardboard?
The score is also a strong point here, but again, I have a soft spot for stuff like this. Plus, hearing wilhelm screams is never not funny, even if they did use the sound effect abundantly here. Most of the cinematography and camera work is surprisingly good, but there are times it relies a little too much on "off screen" descriptions, such as a scene where we see a body in the morgue, with no actual sight of it despite vivid details of said individual. Maybe I'm just a spoiled gore hound, I dunno. I also liked the end sequence, which more than made up for the lull of the third act.
Them! is very enjoyable if you're into these type of films, but otherwise, I'm not sure I'd recommend it to Joe Public. A good entry in the field of radioactive monster movies that deserves it's fanbase that ages better than most would believe.
Tomorrow, I go for a dive and hope to come up for air with Leviathan.
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