31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 28 - THEM!



Them!
94 mins.
Dir. Gordon Douglas
1954/USA

Think ants are harmless?  Think again.  You may consider them innocent hard-working creatures of the insect world but tell that to the victims of Empire of the Ants, Phase IV and the one that started it all, Them!



Oh, the deserts of New Mexico and Atomic Radiation, without thee we would be missing out on countless giant creature movies.  These two have combined countless times to give us overgrown insects and animals throughout the 50s and beyond.  But Them!  A movie about irradiated giant ants, is what really kicked off the giant bug invasion of the 50s and still remains as one of the best.

A little girl is found wandering the desert by the police.  She is in a catatonic state and does not speak or react.  In trying to find where she came from, they find a vacationing camping trailer that has been destroyed and a general store as well nearby.  Soon the culprit makes itself known when a giant 8-foot ant is spotted foraging around.  There can be only one answer for this, atomic radiation.  Yes, the radiation from the first atomic bomb test site has mutated a colony of ants to monstrous proportions.  Why only ants?  Who knows, but all other bugs and creatures have been spared.


So the giant ants head out and do what giant ants do, mainly killing people.  Eventually the giant ant nest is found and bombed with cyanide gas.  But wouldn’t you know that two Queen ants have snuck out and are establishing new colonies.  The search continues until they eventually find the new nests in the storm drain system under Los Angeles.    Giant ants may be tough, but they are nothing compared to US Army issued flame throwers and once again the world is safe.

When it comes to giant bug movies, and there are a lot of them and a lot of them are good.  Them! while the first, is still one of the best.  The epitome of good 1950s science fiction fun.  All the elements are here, the desert, atomic radiation, the US army, crazy scientific speculation, and of course our giant monsters.  Originally supposed to be filmed in 3-D and color, but got scraped from budget cuts and probably for the better.  I don’t think the world was ready for giant color ants, the black and white look is so much more effective.  Look for a quick cameo of Leonard Nimoy and James Arness who played The Thing from The Thing from Another World a few years earlier.  Want to check out something a little on the lighter side this Halloween, watch Them! for a good time.  Just don’t confuse it with the 2006 French home invasion film of the same name.  That one, while an awesome movie, is far from light-hearted fun.



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