Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW)
Horror movies dealing with bugs can make your skin crawl. I've seen a lot of those types of movies. Some like spiders,roaches, and other household pests make you want to buy bug sprays. In "Ants", it makes you want to buy a lifetime supply of it. Here you have a construction crew working near an old hotel making an expansion to the place, and they get visited by an unscrupulous real estate magnate (Gerald Gordon) to buy the land so he can build a casino. However, unknown to the proprietor(Myrna Loy), they have a bigger problem. It's not the magnate, it's a pest problem that is nightmarish from the start. Earlier, two workers are in the pit, one gets bitten by the ants, and are accidentally buried by the loader. Normally, ant bites are not dangerous, but the ants here have became immune to pesticides due to years of exposure. After the deaths of the workers and the hotel chef, immediate action is taken. Since ants are smart enough to build bridges, everyone build a trench and fill it with gasoline, because they can't go through fire. Other non flying bugs could ever get over water. "Kingdom of the Spiders" was scary, "Bug" was scary, "Ants" was a little subtle. It can happen to anyone, and it might make someone to become an exterminator. All you need is research. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Desertman84
I was looking for another work by Lynda Day George whether it was film or a TV movie and I came across with a 1977 TV movie entitled Ants. It was a film in the tradition of Jaws. This thriller is about a group of guest at a tiny resort that becomes prey to a group of ants - the type that could kill considering their chemically poisonous bites that it is capable of and their appetite for human flesh. While this film is far from realistic and with over-the-top performances from the cast that includes Lynda Day George together with Suzanne Sommers,Robert Foxworth,Brian Dennehy, Bernie Casey and Barry Van Dyke,it became enjoyable in the sense that it became unintentionally funny and comedic that made it enjoyable and entertaining. This campy classic is definitely worthwhile especially when one is looking back in the 70's that is similar to its genre.
Wuchak
Released to TV in 1977 as a knock-off of the theatrical "Empire of the Ants," which came out several months earlier, "Ants" is (obviously) a 'when-animals-attack' film featuring the little critters in full attack mode. Although the insects were huge in the theatrical movie, here they're normal-sized but with a toxic bite due to chemicals in the ground or whatever.Robert Foxworth, a favorite of mine, plays the protagonist with his sidekick Bernie Casey, another favorite. Lynda Day George plays the girlfriend at the old hotel where the ants are uprising and Myrna Loy her crippled mother. Barry Van Dyke plays a stud working at the pool and cutie Karen Lamm his girlfriend, Linda. Suzanne Somers is also on hand as the associate of a businessman interested in buying the hotel.I've heard some criticize the movie as high camp when it's not campy at all. It's a straight forward creatures-on-the-loose flick with the requisite drama. There's nothing artificial or goofy about the acting or story, which defines camp. This is not to say, however, that there aren't giggle-worthy parts, like when the boy falls into the dumpster.There's nothing extraordinary about "Ants," but it's certainly decent enough to give an okay grade. Although Somers isn't fat by any means, she's not in good shape like she was early-on in "Three's Company" and over a dozen years later as a hot fitness guru. This can be observed in a couple of scenes where she's wearing a one-piece bathing suit. Karen Lamm works better as the requisite babe. As for Day George, she's dressed to the hilt with loose clothing the entire film.The film runs 95 minutes and was shot at Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island British Columbia.GRADE: C+
BaronBl00d
Even for a tired movie model as the nature vs. man cycle that prevailed so predominantly in the 1970s, ants falls miserably short of being even somewhat effective(though entertaining for reasons it was not intending). It is sooooo preposterous. Apparently these ants that are bulldozed near an inn have been eating poisonous waste for decades and have now adapted by emitting poisonous bites - hundreds of these bites being fatal. Watching actors of some notoriety clumsily fall amidst tiny black specks is painfully funny in a not-so-good-but very-bad way. So many scenes just look ludicrous: a boy trying to fall in a dumpster whilst being attacked, Suzanne Sommers crying out in horror while lounging in bed, Robert Foxworth and Lynda George breathing through pieces of wallpaper, Bernie Casey faking a gam leg, and the list goes on and on. The peril shown ranges from ants crawling from a drain to black lines of ants all over the walls. The cast for the film is not bad on paper, but none of these actors seem to believe in the material. Poor Myrna Loy has to sit in a wheelchair through this horror. I hope she found a good use for the money, for it is obvious that was the ONLY reason a woman of her pedigree would be in this nonsense. Although it is quite a bad film, it is watchable - once for me, and does have many of those seventies bad film qualities - start-studded actors embarrassing themselves, that made-for-TV feel, and the dreaded creatures of nature reeking vengeance on man. This time man must push his hand into a pile of ants to be affected. Really quite dreadful.
AD
