Bad Movie Review: Empire of the Ants
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- For they shall inherit the earth... sooner than you think! Bert I Gordon is back with more giant insects, this time it is the humble ant... in Empire of the Ants (1977)
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Summary: A vessel dumps radioactive waste barrels into the sea and one of them reaches the beach of the Dreamland Shores enterprise. The con-artist Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) and her partner and boyfriend Charlie Pearson (Edward Power) lures small investors, showing the Dreamland Shores as if it were a good place for investment, and not a worthless swampy land. When the new group arrives in a boat, Marilyn and Charlie show the places that will be built. Out of the blue, they are attacked by giant mutant ants and only a few survivals reach a small town. But soon they learn the secret of the town.
A special thanks to our Dark Cultist Patreon supporters.
SHADOWS: CineShadow Moonlight, John S. Savage, Al Champagne, Dragonfyree, Jamie Manley, Mo, Robert Hedges, E. P. Haury Mark Osborn, Travis Stephenson, Madmax, Ossie Nelson, Mark Welsh, Michael Clark, Lightning Round, Ian Lewis, Cecelie James Herington, Jonathan Harrison, Darren Le Noble, Melanie Atherton Allen, Gappasaurus, Joe Porter, Scott Nesmith, Lisa Kuta, John L., Normand Richardson, Richard Sadler, John Hepp, Thom MacIntyre, Chantelle Corey, Logistical Nightmare, Joe Niedbala, Joseph Hines, Stephen Crane, Christopher Eckart, Anthony Strocks, Dave Church, Sikander, Jasmine Shafer, Allan Liska, goddessoftransitory, Rachemus, Chris Weakley, steve scibelli, Connor Brennan, Michael and Heather Bailes, Colleen Crouch, Christie Bryden, Joseph Dougherty, Chris Hewson, David H. Adler, Hidden Trail Video ACOLYTE: Rhea Fleming, Damon Linkous, David Gattis, Mark, SIMON J HEDGE, Heather L., Lee Goodwin, Larry Cloud, Steve White, Rick Winters, Lloyd, Roger Edwards, Carl Wilson, James J Kelly, David work, The Craven Fop, Brian T., Jenny Swindells, Arbie A, Ivo, Jon, Brett Hopkins, Joost, Pete, James Van Sickle, Tim Edwards, Chris Max Hauge, Spooky Robot, Robert ALAN Bryan, Chris McGarel, Robert Clifford, Scott Underwood, Adam Clark, Larry Willoughby, Mark Curtis, Kristiyan Butev, KwaidanFan, Daniel Adams, Sarah, William, Ida Umphers, Miss Angela Hale, Thread Bomb, David Nevarrez, Johnny, Dr Strange Blood, Andrew Adams, Barbara Mosley, Mark Maillet, John Wick, Kenneth Carlson, Ron Klym, James Vance, Joe Goes Over, Tom Lanckman, Nancy A. Collins, Gary Mercer, Ann Knight, Janna Nicole, Clarence Pitre, Fritz Rutz, Chris Fischer, D R Wellington, Ken Smiley, Matt P, Andy M, Milton Knight, Michael Schmidt, C, Michael Dean Jackson, Gemma Crowley, Andrew Weber, Picatea, Jim Rockford, Mystic Cyclone, Prince Charming, Kyle Olson, Ch'aska Huayhuaca, Johnathan Henning, Nils Muninsheim, David Pellot, Brian Kidd, Albertus Magnus, rachael kafrissen, Janne Wass, Robert Freeborn, David Conner, Ford, Peter Grantham, Amber Wesley, Tony Belmonte, Alex B, Mark Buckley, Uwe Marquardt, Russ Chandler, Simon Ash, Lavaughn Towell, Dave Smith, Tim Smith, Melissa Hayes, Dark_Roast, Raven House Mystery
Written and presented by Robin Bailes @robinbailes
Directed and Edited by Graham Trelfer
DARK CORNERS OF THIS SICK WORLD S13E21
#badmoviereview #DarkCornersReview #CultMovieReview 
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"Them Duke boys are going to suffer some catastrophic injuries" is a phrase I never thought I'd hear.
Funnily enough I could almost hear the General Lee's horns just before he said that. :)
Dukes of Hazzard should've Tackled an Episode about Giant Ants.
One other 1970’s trash adaptation of an H.G. Well’s story I remember was The Food of The Gods.
Is THAT why they were replaced by the Cousins for a season!?!
@@thrashpondopons8348 hey Thrash, hope you and yours are all right, hope to catch you Friday
Joan went from an EMPIRE to a
DYNASTY.
😁😀😅😝🤣👍🏽👍🏽
😂
Apparently, "they" all hated her for saving Dynasty from cancellation. I think that's more 'them' than her, however.
@@Bigbadwhitecracker I'm strongly inclined to agree with you on that point. 👍
"Do you WANT ants!? Cause this is how you get ants!"
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. . .
But what does Gary Seven think about all of this?
"Phase IV" immediately springs to mind. Sure, the ants in that film weren't gigantic, but they were imposing.
A little seen, but engaging movie.
Really good film.
That is such a creepy film; very much in the same tone as another Saul Bass film, "Demon Seed". It fits right in to the 1970's paranoid sensibility.
Yes! An excellent movie -- a psychological horror film with a cast of thousands (of ants) plus a few people. It's available for rent/purchase on RUclips.
@@KarlBunker I think that the movie was not necessarily ruined, but certainly diminished by the addition of the girl; prior to her arrival, it was a taut, clinical study of a phenomenon.
“Plan 9” looks even more ridiculous when you realize the basic plot makes it “Day The Earth Stood Still” but without all the good stuff.
When I was a kid, this was a weekend late night movie cornerstone back in the late 70's and early 80's. This movie was on Houston TV pretty quickly after being in the theaters and aired a lot with "Kingdom of the Spiders" being a close second at the time.
Also "Semi-Autonomous Region Of The Beetles".
And Commune of the Katydids. 😏
Kingdom of the Spiders is way better, genuinely good flick IMO.
Well, at least Bert didn't have the ants climb up a picture postcard like his grasshoppers.... 🤣
Yep, this is a big step up here... 🤣
Beat me to it-kudos! 😂
@@jamescappio7434 🤣🤣
'Eight Legged Freaks' was a fun throwback to the tradition of giant creature features!
I'd forgotten about that. Great spider effects. This reminded me of "Arachnophobia"; a fun role for John Goodman (but then, Goodman seems to have fun in pretty much all of his roles).
Agreed, I love Eiight Legged Freaks
I remember seeing this in the theatre with my buddies. Kids are capable of suspending disbelief long enough to enjoy a B movie on the weekend.
Dark Corners has finally completed my childhood "nature gone bad" trilogy. Growing up, there were three films that a local station would show as a triple feature for years. Those three films were Frogs, The Food Of The Gods, and Empire Of The Ants in that order. Interestingly, Dark Corners reviewed these films in the same order.
As for a film with a better counterpart, I have to give a mention to "The Jaws Of Death" (1976). Clearly made due to the success of Jaws in 1975, "The Jaws Of Death" is a shark thriller with a completely different story and some pretty terrifying scenes. A man has a mystic connection to sharks and uses them to get revenge against some bad people.
Ha! The monster triple features were a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. One that always stuck with me was one that played on a Tampa station when I was on vacation.l: 'Alligator', 'Tentacles' and 'The Swarm'. Awesome monster cheese fest!
He did Sssssssss too
Viewers may want to look up "Phase IV". It is directed by a famous cinematographer. Interesting ant centric sci-fi.
Certainly takes Itself a lot more seriously than Empire of the Ants.
Albert Salmi played a lot of unsettling characters, but hearing him talk about the ants like a religious convert is pretty original.
One character he did was a dead gunslinger in a night gallery episode "waiting room" with buddy ebsen and steve forrester, very unsettling!!
I think casting Albert Salmi as the hero's dad in Caddyshack was kinda genius--aside from seeing Salmi in a non-creep role, if he's the boy's dad, the kid must have some sort of skills....
@@PrivateIvan That reminds me of the space pirate he played in a first season episode of Lost in Space.
Sadly Albert Salmi Murdered his Wife before Committing Suicide.
Seems he was a Villain in Real Life.
THEM is my favourite creature feature. Nice that it got a mention.
Mine too. TARANTULA comes in at a pretty close second.
And it's getting a review on Friday
@@DarkCornersReviews awesome. Looking forward to seeing it.
Owlin Howland, as the alcoholic, talking about "tiny planes" is such a creepy way to ramp up the jeopardy in the film. And the sound the ants make. Great stuff.
@@euansmith3699 "MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND CHARGE THE BOOZE!! MAKE ME A SERGEANT AND CHARGE THE BOOZE!!"
All that said, it still *does* sound pretty good from your description.
I remember this coming on TV when I was a kid. The POV shot through the multiple lenses attacking a person was ENTIRELY too much for me, and I jumped up and turned it off, and tried not to think about it, which, of course, meant I could *only* think about it for days afterwards.
WHY DID THEY THINK RADIOACTIVE WASTE MADE STUFF GIGANTIC? What cinema needed was a science advisor like Robin's Dad who would tell Bert I. Gordon "Nooooo."
Why did Stan Lee think gamma rays bestowed superpowers? Creative license?
@@lynnbowers4722 fair play
Bert I Gordon, "So, what effect will radioactive waste have on ants?"
Robin's Dad, "It will cause them to sicken and die."
Bert I Gordon, "And then return to life as Giant Zombie Ants?!"
Robin's Dad, "Nooooooooo."
Years ago I was injected with a radioactive solution for a medical scan. After a lifetime of watching movies like this and reading comics, you can bet I was mightily disappointed when I got jack sh*t in the way of super powers.
Bert has left us but the memes he gave us will live on in our hearts
Saw it many years ago. Found it genuinely fascinating.
Empire of the Ants is one of the Best Unintentional Comedies Ever Made.
I agree "Them" is one of the best ant movies. But I actually liked this one too. The ending always freaked me out though, with the mind control thing.
It is a campy mess but entertaining.
In the early-1980s, this was on semi-regular rotation on The 4:30 Movie, the local NYC ABC affiliate's daily movie show. BUT, the show's time slot was 4:30 to 6pm, with about 30 minutes of commercials. What their editors did to some films was criminal, but when it was Empire of the Ants, basically all non-ant footage was excised. With flicks like this (and many Japanese monster movies), it became a "best-of" clip show. At the time, I was fine with it.
Thanks for the great videos!
Zoolander, "What is this? An Empire for Ants?!"
After 3:36 I was half expecting a later scene of him laying next to the Ant and lighting up a cigarette...
It's amazing how little the sugar growers cooperative refinery out in Belle Glade has changed since the '70s
I guess the more appropriate question is "what other movies make you want to root for the monsters over the humans?"
"GO-JIRA!" 😄
If only Bert hadn’t of killed the giant spider off back in the 50s.
This movie scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid. Saw it again about ten years ago and had a blast.
A Killer Ant movie, I’m sure we’ll see a ton of… ANTarchy lol
I think "Mant" suffered from a superior predecessor, namely "Them."
A decent and well experienced cast helps make it watchable
I remember when I had an infestation of ants in my house, I felt like Joan Collins's character in this movie (and I'm not much exaggerating).
Before I even watch this video, I’m going to state that this movie was amazing to my 10 year old self. Yeah, my parents took me to every creature movie at that time… and there were a lot! Upon watching it recently, I can appreciate it for its time and the imagination it sparked in me as a child.
Now I will enjoy your mockery of this film as I do with all of your other videos. So glad to see you do one that I’ve actually watched. 😂👍
I love "Them"! But my favorite ant-movie is "Phase IV," more subtle, more serious, and more scientific than the giant ant genre.
I have always been a fan of Bert I. Gordon's movies from the 50s as long as I can remember. I got to meet him once at a convention. Anyway, I remember this movie was on TV once when I was a kid and I was so disappointed. My general feeling is that "bad movies" from the 50s are almost always fun. Bad movies from the 70s are almost never fun.
Counterparts: "village of the giants" versus "amazing collosal man", both by B.I.G. I believe
Yes indeed they are !
Hard to Believe Ron Howard was in Village of the Giants.
@@docsavage-8616 so was joe turkel, (sheriff), the bartender in the shining and the tyrell corp boss in blade runner, lol
I remember seeing the trailer for this in a theater in 1977 (I was 8). I laughed so hard I was shushed by several audience members and the usher.
"and I for one welcome our ant overlords!"
This is one of My favorite movies. I don’t know why. I have always liked it. Thanks for reviewing it.
Video versions of this, and a couple of other films came out in the hope of cashing in on the recent fame of some of the actors in it. While Joan Collins had been in films a long time, her role in the nighttime soap Dynasty made her very popular in the '80s.
It's a bad movie, but it's my kind of bad movie. I love it.
It has Joan Collins in It.
5:51 "The cops take them to the refinery, but not just _THEM"._ I have to wonder if that was on purpose.
(checks to reaffirm that you are British)
Yup, checks out.
3:01 no you’re supposed to scream “THEM! THEM!”
Edit: It needs James Arness. And James Whitmore. And Edmund Gwen.
To answer the question about counterparts, I think of the many film versions of Jekyll and Hyde. I find the 1931 Fredric March film to be absolutely masterful. Now, every time I watch a Jekyll and Hyde film I haven't seen before, I always find myself comparing it to that version.
That opening narration gives me _ZaAt/Blood Waters of Dr. Z_ flashbacks.
I love this movie, seen it several times.
"Earth vs the Spider", another Mr. B.I.G. production, comes up short next to its Universal-International counterpart "Tarantula".
$10,000 sports car? Wow, impressive.
I think I'd have gone for "Ship of fools? Yacht of twats!"
RIP, Mr. BIG!
Say what you will.
A very Prolific and Creative Filmmaker.
I watched it here, in Brazil, when I was a kid. Nice memories! "Formigas Gigantes" at SBT!
I must of watched this movie a dozen times as a kid!
Ants smell super bad, I don’t think at that size they could sneak up on any thing.
I’m not a kid, but I once was, and if you doubt that ants smell bad, smash a nest open… That’s more like a thing a 10 year old boy with a big stick would do, so if you can’t be bothered, just trust me.
That fact, and that scene took me straight out of that movie.
I'd like to say thank you from across the pond for the reviews you do. I've learned a lot from you (and several other RUclipsrs) about film making and effects. Because of you guys, I landed a dream side gig building sets and some practical special effects for a low budget film. Thanks for spreading knowledge in an entertaining fashion.
A chock Robert Lansing, don’t remember seeing him like that in anything else. Filmed at big Sugar in S Florida who have dumped tons of fertilizer runoff into the waterways. Maybe they are creating giant pythons and iguanas now
Burt I. Gordon and Joan Collins together? It is a miracle that the world did not end, but then again, it was Joan's destiny to become Alexis! 😉
Anyone remember a film where Cockroaches land on Earth on a meteorite. They invade a guy's house, and begin to communicate by assembling themselves into letters and words on the wall of the house. From the 1970's, love to see it again.
I like this movie now, but as a child... ugh. The glassed-in ants are a real eyesore. But it's miles better than the similar Food Of The Gods.
The novel of the same name by Bernard Werber is very interesting and entertaining. I’m not aware of any film adaptations.
Y'know Boss, I think we should start putting our roadblock IN FRONT of the cutoff road. Just saying, Chief.
Joan Collins is never really hailed as a scream queen despite her genre work.
if only they had a really huge magnifying glass
I would have loved to see some cars being driven by the giant ants.
I could say Hobgoblins suffers because of Gremlins. But then the latter is great and the former also suffers from being rubbish....
Sometimes, RUclips's algorithm gets it right. The first ad before your video was for Terro Ant Killer.
I actually love the ant film "Phase 4". It was slow, but not too bad of a movie.
HEY! That's Gary Seven, again, from "Assignment Earth". Popping up in another bad horror film, I see .... Wonder where Teri Garr got off to.
At least he didn't call it "Ant-demic".
The commercial before this was for ant elimination lol
The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler vs Parts: The Clonus Horror vs The Island? But there is also a German film called Fleish that has a Coma vibe to it - as far as I can remember a good movie but hard to obtain. (Your mission, Robin, should you decide to accept it 😊)
Village of the Giants, Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants.... Gordon just couldn't leave Wells enough alone.
Man, I first saw this on VHS as a kid and it was my introduction to H.G. Wells' original story as well as his other short stories, which I got around to some time after I had read his novels - my introduction to WAR OF THE WORLDS and Wells as a whole was a really short BOY'S LIFE comic strip adaptation (I was in the Webelos Scouts then). I think this may have also been the very first Bert I. Gordon film I saw, before seeing his earlier films on American Movie Classics. RIP B.I.G.
Always had a soft spot for this movie because some of those island scenes were filmed next to my home town in Florida right near a nuclear plant where I would eventually work.
As a Robert Lansing fan I had been bugging Robin during live streams about doing a review of The 4D Man (which is really a pretty decent film). Instead Robin reviews this.
Should of had Henry Mancini do the Score for the closing Credits... 'Dead Ant, Dead Ant...'
The only thing I've ever seen Joan Collins in. Many thanks to Mr. BIG himself Bert I. Gordon rest in peace. Empire does miss it's target but it's still a bit of fun. If anything it made look for Bert's older films.
I remember when Collins and whats her name from The Big Valley got into a knock down drag out fight on DYNASTY. ...good times 💃
That would be Linda Evans.
Which time? Alexis' studio, the lily pond, the mountain trail mud patch, or the Beauty Parlor? lol
Saw this in theater in the o glorious double feature days with the equally campy "food of the gods" R.I.P Bert "Mr. BIG" Gordon.
"Every morning, Joan Collins is gassed..." Yeah, that was the rumor back then.
I love that Duke Boys joke.
00:49 Hey, that's Robert Pine, father of Chris "Kelvin Timeline Kirk" Pine!
Even before the ants appeared it was the least inviting island since Iwo Jima,
I can't believe an ant pesticide commercial accompanied this video! ( Well... it does seem appropriate.)
This has reminded me of a spider movie from prob around the same time. I think these were space spiders as they hatched from meteorites, or it might have been geodes. Anyway standout scenes were one where a character doesn't notice one of the critters in their blender and so blitzes it and drinks it, and another where the now-giant arachnids are roaming the land and the special effect used was just to pop a big papier mache spider on the roof of a car and drive it about! Fun times
Mr. BIG lives on ... fun review!
Them is definitely a wonderful film! 🐜
Funny that RUclips would put an AD in for Terro Ant Baits 🤣
"A boat of jerks". Love it.
First Robert Lansing does this film, then in 1987 he does The Nest. I guess if you want to make a film about real estate developments endangered by giant insects, Robert Lansing is your guy.
Oh, so that is Robert Pine, aka Chris Pine's dad!
Movies that may suffer in comparison to a similar concept? Wyatt Earp vs. Tombstone. Attack of the Doll People vs. The Incredible Shrinking Man. The Giant Behemoth vs. Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. It Came from Beneath the Sea vs. The Deadly Mantis.
Lingering on the hot topic of rapaciously rampaging hordes of angry ants, it seems propitiously well-timed to modestly suggest a possible Dark Corners review of THE NAKED JUNGLE (1954), freely adapted from the Carl Stephenson much anthologized short story "Lenigen versus the Ants". It's yet another enjoyable picture from the George Pal--Byron Haskin production duo, with Haskin of course manning the director's chair. In lieu of the irradiated economy-size variety, these ants are essentially the way tinier but even more numberless common household pest---you know the kind; the shitty little insect varmints that always seem to find a way to break into your package of Fig Newtons. But this particular species of ant comes with a truly major qualifier: they're vicious South American soldier ants, swarming into a writhing seething miles-wide mass killing and often devouring every living thing that falls into their rapacious train (this includes any unwary people). Imagine millions on millions of tiny hungry--as--piranha Huns relentlessly on the march, like some Scourge of God (or Hell). Yeah, it's like that.
Much of the movie's first half is taken up with the awkward romance of plantation owner Charleton Heston and mail-order wife Eleanor Parker. But once the creepy-crawly tide of death & destruction gets moving the pace of the carnage-to-come kicks off nicely. Determined at all cost to save his investment, manly man's man Chuck H. unflinching chooses to risk his skin by plunging straight into the merciless jungle maelstrom. First he protectingly & precautionally swabs his masculine person generously with a viscous mixture of petrol & motor oil, all towards repelling (one hopes) those nasty pesky buggers. (Though I would rather recommend upending several buckets-full of Raid Ant Kill over his head. That could work better. I guess the screenwriters' must've missed that life-saving option.) Then he grabs a whole fist full of stick dynamite and heads out into the gaping maw of danger with the intent of blowing open a nearby dam and unleashing a flood that will drown all those gosh-darned nuisance killer ants.
By one of those minor & trifling coincidences the blockbuster THEM! was released a mere couple of weeks following NAKED JUNGLE. Showing, one guesses, that size does sometimes matter.
Today, I watch Bert I. Gordon's films for the laughs and to remember my childhood full of grade B schlock, but "Empire of the Ants" is a film that only brings back bad memories. If you want to watch a movie about intelligent ants, check out "Phase IV" or "Naked Jungle" with Charlton Heston and Eleanor Parker (rarely do you get such star power in Man vs. nature films).
In defense of not using the building, if it's not properly ventilated for fires then it fills with smoke fast and they would have died from that. Why the fireplace chimney is a must for the fireplace
Perhaps the biggest gap in quality between a good and bad counterpart are The Birds and Birdemic
"A Boat Of Bollocks" 😀😀
I'm surprised the legendary Mr. B.I.G actually managed to live to a 100.
Hail Ants!
Similar but better counterparts? When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) is a classic example of "stop motion dinosaurs + hot women = success" by copying the setting of One Million Years B.C. (1966). Personally, I think the OMYBC is the better of the two - but they are both ridiculously fun to watch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like the plot twist of Empire of the Ants, because that was not a direction I saw coming at all. I must have seen this before I saw almost anything I've seen Jacqueline Scott in before (other than Duel) because I did not remember her being in this. I might have even seen this the same week that I first saw Food of the Gods on the 4:30 Movie. Also the first thing I remember seeing by Jack Turley that wasn't set in Mexico or Spain (following an I Spy episode and the Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode, "The Test-Tube Killer Affair").
Nothing will ever make me choose this movie over 'Them!'
I saw this at the time it came out. I had forgotten how it ended in the "ant farm". Such a bad funny movie.
(Or is that funny bad movie?)
Anyway, Mr. BIG kept me entertained from the early movies on TV (The Cyclops really creeped me out at a kid) through Empire of the Ants. Pretty sure that was the last of his movies I ever saw.
Thank you for another great review.
the ad that popped up was for ant bait
Haha I got that ad too!