Them! (1954)

Director: Gordon Douglas

Starring: James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn

Run Time: 94 mins

Certificate: PG

 

Plot Outline: Nuclear tests in the Nevada desert create giant mutant ants. Naturally the ants are hungry and set about munching people and causing chaos in the small village nearby. Slowly the ants start to spread, eventually ending up in LA. Can they be stopped?

The Review: With a plot like that, you would have thought this would be completely cheesy and rubbish? Well yes and no. Yes the ants do look very fake but no this film isn't rubbish. It's extremely well made for such a film. The script is sharp and suspenseful and its well-translated onto the screen by a fine cast with some good acting on display from James Whitmore and especially Edmund Gwenn (who adds some needed comic touches in his scenes). The ants, however fake looking, do have a certain degree of menace to them. Whether this is because of the eerie noise they make is another thing. The film starts off well and too typical of 50s B-movies, with mysterious goings-on in a desert area and people starting to go missing. We get a good look at the ants quite early on and it doesn't try to hide them either. When they're on screen, you get a good look at them. When they're not on screen you don't. There's no middle ground like Jaws where you only get glimpses of the killer. Unfortunately the film gets a boring for the middle half of the film as there is a lot of talking and not much ant action. This was probably due to the budget not allowing too many shots of the ants but they could have still managed to put something of interest in here. However the film's final climax in the sewers of LA is an all time classic and the suspense really picks up as the army hunt down the nest of ants through the dark sewers. It's easy to see that this finale has been picked up by modern classics where people go hunting for creatures in dark, labyrinthian settings.

Final Verdict: Them! works well as a horror, science fiction or good old-fashioned mystery. But there is no denying it isn't a classic and easily set the standards for future films to follow.