Empire of the Ants (1977)

It is absolutely mind blowing to me that this movie is averaging a 4.4 rating. It came out when I was 11 in 1977; it was great and we still lived in an age where we didn't realize how silly the whole thing looked. I showed my son who is 29 and though he laughed, he understands the limitations from that time. If you're going to watch this for the first time, try to watch with all the above in mind. And enjoy!!!!

This claims to be based on an H.G. Wells story and without ever having read anything by him, I can safely say it must be very loosely based on something he wrote.The movie starts with b-roll of ants and a narrator telling us it's possible for ants to take over the world,then it cuts to people dumping barrels of radioactive waste into the ocean and then a Love Boat style arrival of strangers to a dock.I really don't know anything about Wells but I'm pretty sure he lived before b-roll,radioactive waste and the Love Boat. This movie has all the elements of a made for TV disaster but it was a real movie,even though it starred Joan Collins. They imply that the waste(which is silver)created the giant ants but a day later there's a town full of people who have been ruled by ants for a long time.What? There's very little story,lots of over acting and the ants are very fake looking.Anytime one attacks a person it goes to a tight shot and the camera starts shaking wildly so we cant see how dumb the ants look.This is a very average giant bug movie.

Joan Collins shows true grit facing down giant radioactive ants in this muddy monster-fest directed, co-written and co-produced by Bert I. Gordon. An island hideaway turns into the ultimate hell for vacationers after ants have grown to enormous proportions, terrorizing the tourists and sending Collins and crew on the run. Despite good photographic effects by cinematographer Reginald Morris--not to mention a touch of class provided by Joan herself--the results are pretty ridiculous. Based on an H.G. Wells story, the film's third act laughably tries sneaking in sort of an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"-type plot twist--and one is nearly inclined to give the picture some extra points for its moxie. It isn't art, but then it doesn't strive to be anything other than a dopey entertainment. As for Collins, she performs with conviction; hopefully she cashed a paycheck somewhat larger than the ants. * from ****

Even though my score is pretty low I really like this type of movies. The first time I saw this movie I was only 7 or 8 years old. It was really fun to revisit this and I had a great nostalgic experience. Joan Collins is great and I really loved the scenes with the giant ants. I remember from when I first saw this one. I was about 7 years old. It was really scary then but somehow it spiked my fascination for movies with giant insects.Joan Collins is carrying the whole movie and she does it great.If you like old monster movies you are going to love this one. Jerky stop-motion is mixed with actual ants climbing over miniatures.