Ants is another eco-horror thriller TV movie from the late 1970s and is pretty much on par with the likes of Tarantulas and Terror Out of the Sky, meaning passably entertaining but not much more than that.
Ants!
(1977)
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Kino Lorber| NR – 95 min. – $24.95 | July 5, 2022
Date Published: 07/09/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2¾/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: A mountain resort is ravaged by a deadly force in this terrifying tale of Mother Nature’s revenge. Expecting a weekend of luxurious self-indulgence, visitors at the ritzy Lakewood Manor soon discover they’re the entrée of the day for an army of malevolent ants with an appetite for human flesh. When these killer creepy-crawlies eat toxic insecticides, they don’t die—they just get meaner.
Quick Hit Review: Ants is thankfully the third and last of these creature-attack horror-thrillers I’ve watch in the past few days (the others were Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo and Terror Out of the Sky) and this one is pretty much in-line with those where you get an ensemble cast, this one especially felt close to a 1970s disaster film as well, who battle some invasion and they must figure out a way from the insects from spreading. This is another made-for-television movie that aired back in 1977 on ABC and while not great, did have a few suspense-filled moments and fun to see the likes of Brian Dennehy fairly early in his career (and looking on IMDb, one of a dozen movies and shows he appeared in ’77). That said, I can’t say it’s anything special and killer ants don’t really frighten me. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3½/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover and the interior cover is reversible. Features include an Audio Commentary by Author/Film Historian Lee Gambin; Audio Interviews with Actors Barbara Brownell (38:50), Barry Van Dyke (40:09), Anita Gillette (32:19), Moosie Drier (33:14), and Production Assistant and Daughter of Producer Alan Landsberg, Valerie Landsberg (45:22). All told, the interviews totaled over 3 hours and each one covers their respective careers and their memories working on Ants. Really for a TV movie from 45 years ago, they did a good job getting as many interviewees as possible. |
VIDEO – 4/5 |
| Ants crawls onto Blu-ray through Kino Lorber where it’s presented both in 1.85 widescreen and 1.33 full frame aspect ratios and 1080p high-def transfers (taken from a new 2K master). It’s basically up to personal preferences as the widescreen option does cut off the top and bottom but the sides are expanded versus the full frame which is open framed but sides not showing as much of the frame. I decided to watch with the widescreen version which looked rather good; detail was decent enough while colors weren’t especially vibrant. There were a couple very minor specs here and there but for the most part this was a clean transfer. |
AUDIO – 3¾/5 |
| The disc comes with a standard DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which, and I’m going out on a limb here, probably sounded far better than the stereo (or mono) sound from televisions back in the 70s. Dialogue comes across with nice clarity and even the sounds of the thousands of ants scrambling around offer some minor depth. |
OVERALL – 3/5 |
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Overall, Ants is another eco-horror thriller TV movie from the late 1970s and is pretty much on par with the likes of Tarantulas and Terror Out of the Sky, meaning passably entertaining but not much more than that. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.