Empire of the Ants (film)

{{Infobox film

| name = Empire of the Ants

| image = Empire of the ants film poster.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan

| director = Bert I. Gordon

| producer = {{plainlist|

Samuel Z. Arkoff (executive producer)
Bert I. Gordon}}

| writer = {{plainlist|

Bert I. Gordon
Jack Turley}}

| starring = {{plainlist|

| music = Dana Kaproff

| cinematography = Reginald H. Morris

| editing = Michael Luciano

| studio = Cinema 77

| distributor = American International Pictures

| released = {{Film date|1977|07|29}}

| runtime = 89 minutes

| language = English

| country = United States

| budget =

| gross = $2.5 million{{Cite book |last=Nowell |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6faoAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA257 |title=Blood money: a history of the first teen slasher film cycle |date=2011 |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-1441124968 |location=New York |page=257 |access-date=5 November 2016}}{{Cite book |last=Donahue |first=Suzanne Mary |url=https://archive.org/details/americanfilmdist0000dona/page/300/mode/1up |title=American film distribution : the changing marketplace |publisher=UMI Research Press |year=1987 |page=300|isbn=9780835717762 }} Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada

}}

Empire of the Ants is a 1977 science fiction horror film co-written and directed by Bert I. Gordon.{{Cite news |last=Weiler |first=A. H. |date=June 30, 1977 |title=Movie Review: 'Empire of the Ants' A Snail's-Pace Film |work=The New York Times |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A0CE1D91E38E53BBC4850DFB066838C669EDE |access-date=2010-02-10}} Based very loosely on the 1905 short story "Empire of the Ants" by H. G. Wells, the film involves a group of prospective land buyers led by a land developer, pitted against large mutated ants.

It is the third and last film released in A.I.P.'s H.G. Wells film cycle, which include The Food of the Gods (1976) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977).

Plot

File:Joan Collins Empire of the Ants.JPG in the movie.]]

The opening narration notes how ants use pheromones to communicate and how this causes an obligatory response. As the opening credits roll, barrels sporting radioactive waste decals are dumped off a boat into the ocean. One of the barrels washes onto a beach and leaks a silvery goo onto the sand.

Meanwhile, shady land developer Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) takes prospective clients on a boat trip to view a beachfront land development in the area of the waste dump. Unbeknownst to the visitors, ants are writhing in the radioactive goo from the leaky barrel. The visitors question the value of the land, but the trip is cut short when some of them are attacked by giant mutated ants. The ants destroy their boat and chase the group through woods. After losing some of their party along the way, the survivors discover a town and gain a promise of help from the local sheriff. Their sense of safety is short-lived as they discover that the queen ant, using pheromones, has put the townsfolk under her control and is making them provide her colony with sugar from the local sugar plant. The boat captain kills the queen ant, enabling the remaining survivors to escape the area in a speedboat.

Cast

Joan Collins as Marilyn Fryser
Robert Lansing as Dan Stokely
John David Carson as Joe Morrison
Albert Salmi as Sheriff Art Kincade
Jacqueline Scott as Margaret Ellis
Pamela Susan Shoop (as Pamela Shoop) as Coreen Bradford
Robert Pine as Larry Graham
Edward Power as Charlie Pearson
Brooke Palance as Christine Graham
Ilse Earl as Mary Lawson
Tom Fadden as Sam Russell
Harry Holcombe as Harry Thompson
Irene Tedrow as Velma Thompson
Marvin Miller as the Narrator (uncredited)

Production

=Special effects=

File:Aptos Twin Cinema Ad - 15 June 1977, Aptos, CA.jpg

As with most Bert I. Gordon films, the director himself oversaw most of the special effects. To create the effect of large ants, the director often used the technique of process shots, where close-up images of live ants were combined with images of the actors on set, reacting to the menacing insects. Another more crude effect used by Gordon was one he borrowed from his previous film Beginning of the End, where he would place live insects in a miniature set lined with still photographs of the location and let them crawl around. The shortcomings of this technique were highlighted in a scene where the ants are climbing the outside of a sugar refinery, and some of them appear to suddenly crawl off the building and walk vertically into the sky.{{Cite book |last=Schoell |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EXQrDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT75 |title=Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies |date=2014 |publisher=Mcfarland |isbn=978-0786495627 |location=Jefferson |page=75}} When the film called for actors to be attacked by the ants, large rubber mock-ups were used, which were animated by crew members who wiggled the gigantic props in front of the camera.{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Tom |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50AbUfJS6OkC&pg=PA384 |title=A sci-fi swarm and horror horde: interviews with 62 filmmakers |date=2010 |publisher=McFarland & Co. |isbn=978-0786446582 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |pages=382–385}} Joan Collins later said she did not like working with the ant props, as they bumped and scratched the actors, including herself.

=Filming=

Principal photography took place on location in the Florida Everglades and St. Lucie and Martin Counties in Florida during the fall of 1976. Filming in a remote swampland sometimes proved to be problematic, and was particularly taxing for the women because their restrooms were approximately a half-hour away by speedboat. Actress Pamela Susan Shoop recalls that "because it was a half-hour each way, when we went to the bathroom, they had to wait an hour. It was a mess, but the shoot was fun". Another problem with the location was dealing with the unpredictable wildlife. According to actor Robert Pine, there was one scene where the actors had to fall out of a rowboat and into the river, where there were apparently live alligators. The director had previously promised that a cage would be installed to protect the actors, but for some unknown reason the cage never arrived. Also, even though they were filming in Florida, the autumn weather ended up sending temperatures to freezing levels. At one point, the cold weather was so bad that it caused Shoop's jaw to dislocate during one of her screaming scenes and she had to be sent to the hospital to be treated.{{Cite journal |last=Jankiewicz |first=Pat |date=April 2001 |title=Damsel in Distress |url=https://archive.org/details/starlog_magazine-285 |journal=Starlog |issue=285 |pages=32–33 |access-date=5 November 2016}}

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 5% based on {{nowrap|19 reviews}}, with a weighted average rating of 2.72/10.{{Cite web |title=Empire of the Ants (1977) - Rotten Tomatoes |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/empire_of_the_ants |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231119010929/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/empire_of_the_ants |archive-date=19 November 2023 |access-date=16 July 2018 |website=Rotten Tomatoes.com |publisher=Flixer}}

Joan Collins received a nomination for Best Actress for her lead role in this film at the 5th annual Saturn Awards.