Them!
Year: 1954
Director: Gordon Douglas
Written by: Ted Sherdeman
Threat: Giant Ants
Weapon of Choice: Mandibles/Pincers
Color/B&W/3D: B & W
Language: English
Country of Origin: U.S.A.
IMDb page: 
Them!Year: 1954 Director: Gordon Douglas Written by: Ted Sherdeman Threat: Giant Ants Weapon of Choice: Mandibles/Pincers Color/B&W/3D: B & W Language: English Country of Origin: U.S.A. IMDb page: |
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Rish's Reviews
The time has come to finish writing this. This review is so late, the movie had just come
out when I saw it.
Okay, so maybe that's an exaggeration, but not much. Truth be told, this was the last
horror movie I saw before moving away from Los Angeles, more than a year ago, and
it has sat in my Unfinished Reviews folder with two others just waiting for me to summon
the strength to write it up. Luckily, I took notes, as I always did in those days (and absolutely
never do now). I only hope I can make sense of them.
Firstly, Them! was made in the 1950s. I've often claimed that most horror films
from this era were terrible, yet I'd guess that the majority of my reviews from Fifties movies
have been positive. This is one of--if not the--most cited example of the atomic fascination/terror
that filmmakers took advantage of in that decade, imagining all sorts of radioactive monstrosities,
from mutated people, havoc-wreaking monsters, and giant bugs, as seen in this film, The
Deadly Mantis, and The Beginning of the End.
The story takes place in the desert of New Mexico, where people are disappearing (or
worse), and when investigated, they find strange markings in the sand. When they consult
with a pair of scientists (a cool Brit and his young daughter), they discover a colony of
gargantuan ants, mutated by atomic bomb testing. Can our heroes destroy the ants before
the winged queens fly off to create new colonies?
As you may know, this film was based on a true story. I know, my brother-in-law was
raised by giant ants.
There were a lot of familiar faces throughout. James Whitmore stars as the trusty
policeman, James Arness is an FBI man brought in when one of his guys is killed,
Fess Parker plays one of the townsfolk . . . they say you can even see Leonard Nimoy
in a miniscule role. I didn't see him, but it would be worth looking for. I had a note
asking, "Who played the doctor?" It turned out to be Edmund Gwenn, most famous for
playing Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street.
It had a neat, unique-feeling New Mexico setting. Of course, they'd have been still doing
Westerns in those days. Oh, and it was great to hear the Wilhelm Scream a couple of
times in the film.
I had a friend in college who had seen this for a class and constantly mocked the little
girl at the beginning, crying out "Them! Them!" But you know, I thought that scene was
pretty darn great. In fact, the whole film is really, really good.
It wasn't as good as The Thing
or The Fly, but it was quite cool. The filmmakers
apparently didn't feel the need for the obligatory tacked-on romance (for once), and there
was some intelligent storytelling here, with no disrespect for the audience. The film stops
for a few minutes to tell us about ants and their abilities. It's fascinating, and is done in
a war room briefing scenario, so it feels natural. It was so well done I didn't realise I
was being schoolroomed until it was already over.
The special effects won an Oscar, and are really quite impressive. This is the kind of
movie I'd like to see them remake today . . . except I'm afraid the special effects would
be even faker now than they were then. You dig?
I'd Recommend It To: Oh, check it out. It may make a bug-lover out of you too.
Posted: October 8, 2007
Total Skulls: 8
| Sequel | ||
| Sequel setup | ||
| Rips off earlier film | ||
| Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
| Future celebrity appears |  |
Fess Parker, James Arness |
| Former celebrity appears | ||
| Bad title | ||
| Bad premise | ||
| Bad acting | ||
| Bad dialogue | ||
| Bad execution | ||
| MTV Editing | ||
| OTS | ||
| Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
| Wanton sex | ||
| Death associated with sex | ||
| Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
| Characters forget about threat | ||
| Secluded location | |
|
| Power is cut | ||
| Phone lines are cut | ||
| Someone investigates a strange noise | |
|
| Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
| Camera is the killer | ||
| Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
| Victim locks self in with killer | ||
| Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | |
|
| Toilet stall scene | ||
| Shower/bath scene | ||
| Car stalls or won't start | ||
| Cat jumps out | ||
| Fake scare | ||
| Laughable scare | ||
| Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
| Dream sequence | ||
| Hallucination/Vision | ||
| No one believes only witness | |
|
| Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | |
|
| Warning goes unheeded | ||
| Music detracts from scene | ||
| Death in first five minutes | ||
| x years before/later | ||
| Flashback sequence | ||
| Dark and stormy night | ||
| Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
| Killer wears a mask | ||
| Killer is in closet | ||
| Killer is in car with victim | ||
| Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
| Unscary villain/monster | ||
| Beheading | ||
| Blood fountain | ||
| Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc. | ||
| Poor death effect | ||
| Excessive gore | ||
| No one dies at all | ||
| Virgin survives | |
|
| Geek/Nerd survives | ||
| Little kid lamely survives | ||
| Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
| Unresolved subplots | ||
| "It was all a dream" ending | ||
| Unbelievably happy ending | ||
| Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
| What the hell? |