cinema history class: them!

Session: Bring Your Own Movie Month, Week 3 (Dave)
Movie: Them! (1954)
Directed by Gordon Douglas

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.

Plot:
Giant ants are discovered in New Mexico. And they've spread. The military desperately tries to hunt them down before it's too late. Horror ensues.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Soon after Keith treated us to a giant monsters month (which included a giant scorpion movie), Dave brought (for his BYOM month entry) a giant ant movie. The guys in class were shocked to find out that I had never seen Them!, since it's acclaimed as one of the classic giant monster flicks. Wait until they learn that I haven't seen Tarantula.

At any rate, Them! deserves its acclaim. The mechanically-achieved ant effects weren't as effective as the stop motion that was used in The Black Scorpion, but  it was still worlds better than the typical CGI which looks impressive but fails to actually scare. The story was engaging and frightening. If you forget the square-cube law, you could almost believe.

Special kudos to young Sandy Descher, who played the little girl in shock at the beginning. One almost wishes that she had a bigger role, because she did such a good job pulling off what she had.

Perhaps the best part of Them! is the very ending where the scientist gives his ominous warning about the evils that have been unleashed. This immediately made me think of the physicist, Robert Oppenheimer. Upon witnessing Trinity, the first nuclear bomb test, he famously quoted the Bhagavad-Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." That was the perfect way to end the film.

Ratings

Me: 9.5

Bob: 10

Christina: 10

Joe: 10
Keith: 10