Phase IV

This is one of those slowly developing movies that really capture you, provided you are willing to follow at that slow pace. There is one scene somewhere in the middle of the movie, where a single (!) ant crawls up an arm, but by that point in the movie your nerves are already so much on edge that you feel threatened by it (at least I do). Now that's what I call true horror! Unfortunately the intended ending (about 15 minutes) of this movie was cut out by the producer; I would really like to see a director's cut of it. Because of this missing end only 9 out of 10. Down with producers who destroy the artistic vision of directors!

This is not a good movie. The sorry line is awful. It is not scary. 6.6 is just overrating it. It not scary at all. It has some good actors but it is not a good story line at all. This is one of the worst horror movie of all time. I need more lines and I am running out of things to say. Do not wast your time. Do not wast your money. Do not see this awful movie. If you want to get scared see Empire of Ants. Do not see this stinky stinky dodo. There is a reason why people like it. But I could not tell you. I do not knew why this got a 6.6. It is so pooh pooh. I do not knew why people like. Just see Empire of the Ants do not see this.

Phase IV is not your average movie experience. Definitely not for everyone, so, see it if you get the chance (Last I saw it was a 1997 airing on The Sci-Fi Channel.) and decide if it's for you. It's even hard to generalize WHAT the movie is about. On the surface, a colony of ants has gained a heightened level of intelligence and has apparently decided to drive out the local people. A group of surviving scientists, who were examining the ant phenomenon, rescue a wandering woman, and they become "trapped" in the "laboratory." The lead researcher then goes nutters over trying to determine what the ants are doing and getting nowhere because, well, ants and humans just aren't natural conversationalists. And the story ends... well, it just ends. What did the ants want? Did they take over the woman's body at the end? Did they the one surviving scientist, or, did he "join" them, just come to reason with them, what? Plus, what ARE the other three "Phases?" Now, I first saw this film on Beta in 1985 and on VHS many time since, the last being the aforementioned 1997 airing. I've read the reviews here, and, WHERE are people getting the alien intelligence taking over the ants from?! I've been watching this movie for 15 plus years, and, I can't recall any aliens mentioned. An alien influence on the ants WOULD make a bit more sensical motivation for the ants, but, I don't recall this stated even as a theory anywhere in the movie. I welcome anyone to e-mail me and let me know where it is in the film, because, I may have just failed to catch it. So, why would I recommend it? This movie manages to effectively pull you into the story without any of the excess baggage one would expect from a nature gets its revenge picture. No drawn out "battle" sequences, like "Empire Of The Ants." The event has happened, so, there's no need to express it with cheap special effects. The story hinges instead on the aftermath, how people deal with it, the scientific community's response, all the time presenting a prevailing air of mystery as to why the ants did it. The casual viewer will be disappointed by its rather quizzical ending because it doesn't "resolve" the question of what the ants want or were doing in a clean cut package. In fact, it doesn't GIVE an answer. It opens up the floor to debate, so to speak, where your own questions about it allow you to formulate your own "message" from the ending. Can we live with the ants? Can the ants live with us? Do either sides want to? Many would also find this film boring because of the lack of "action" sequences until the end, pretty much summed up when the nutter scientist is consumed in a pit of ants. Instead, the film builds up suspense with effective small shots of the ants themselves. Ants moving through technical equipment to "sabotage" it. Ants moving through their tunnels, reflecting a genuine "sinister" sense, a sort of "What are they planning, if anything?" atmosphere. Ants moving over furniture, people. Nothing over done with an army of ants crawling all over the place, people screaming as they drown in a flood of insects (Save the one scientist, I suppose.) It doesn't dumb itself down with exploitive action sequences. In the end, the film doesn't insult a viewer's intelligence. IF someone doesn't get anything out of about it, the film just lets them be. For others, it opens up the floor with unresolved questions, but, does not hinge on them, like so many cop out endings. You're left to reach your own conclusions, but not as a crutch, to avoid having to write an ending or a low budget, etc. An interesting film if you can ever find it. If you do, watch it and decide for yourself. It's one of the few movies made that lets you choose whether to like it or not, and goes along with that.

Saul Bass's "Phase IV" lies within the interstices of science fiction and horror, and adds an unexpected element: that of sheer awe and mystery. As a partial inspiration for his film, Bass likely had the 1971 faux documentary "The Hellstrom Chronicle" in mind. "The Hellstrom Chronicle's" thesis is that insects will be the ultimate inheritors of the Earth. Bass, best known as a creator of film titles (most notably for many Hitchcock classics), was also a great admirer of Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey". He even wrote a brief letter of appreciation to Kubrick that is reprinted in Jerome Agel's book "The Making of 2001". "Phase IV" itself seems a demonic inversion of Kubrick's film, offering, as it does, a rather different view of human destiny. Cosmic disturbances appear to have caused strange alterations in the behavior of ants. Instead of ordinary mounds, enormous towers bearing massive ant colonies have been discovered in the desert. The ants have also become aggressive, and are mounting nocturnal attacks upon local farmers and their livestock. In addition to a tremendous collective intelligence and purposiveness, the ants seem to have developed a virulent form of venom. A pair of scientists--the leader of whom exudes rationalist, anthropocentric arrogance--establishes a laboratory in the vicinity to study the phenomenon and to put an end to it. (Note: SPOILER ALERT!) I know: Just another 1950's B-movie retread about mutant insects thwarted in their evil plot for world domination by good, old-fashioned pluck and scientific know-how, right? Wrong! The ants--normal-sized, by the way--are more than a match for each of man's contrivances. By using their superior social organization and intelligence, and by fearless self-sacrifice, the mutant ants bring the humans to their knees in short order. The film's end leaves little doubt as to man's future, and eerily implies that the ants have a plan for a new "Adam and Eve" that is rather different from that of humanity's supposed "creator". For the "species-traitor", it is exhilarating to see the ants, through their disciplined single- mindedness, triumph over the arrogant scientists. I doubt, however, that this theme endeared "Phase IV" to the movie-going public. In fact, given the film's mood, ending, and inadvertent demonstration of the power of quasi-fascistic social organization, it is easy to understand why *Phase IV* is not better known--and why Saul Bass, alas, never directed another film after this one. Highly recommended.

This is one of the greatest movies ever made. Saul Bass has created, out of the blue, one of the most terrifying fictions ever conceived. Bass' genius is usually confined to the miniature. What better way to explore this than extensive ant photography. I could not believe the character injected into what, in the hands of some hack director, might be just nature shots. The film begins media res and there is a sense that the world is off kilter somehow. The voice over that caps the movie is some of the most literate, enigmatic film monologue i have experienced. See this as a parent of PI and you'll be on the right track. the sun bleached photography and the atmosphere of menace conspire to such a degree that the movie has the feeling of a Beach Boys nightmare. I will not spoil the ending. It is enough to say that there may very well never be anything like it again. Bass directed a short called Quest, produced by Robert Redford (probably shot in Utah!), which has the same vibe. It is like the invasion of some other reality, into our own. 10/10. This movie made me want to explode.

If you really really REALLY enjoy movies featuring ants building dirt-mirrors, eating non-ants, and conquering the world with a voice-over narrative, then this is the movie for you. Basically, a couple of scientists working out of a bio-dome communicate with highly intelligent ants (the most intelligent actors in this film) in an attempt to try to thwart their plans of conquest and extermination. Throughout the movie the two scientists (and a girl they rescued from the ants) use everything at their disposal (computers, green dye, and horrid acting), but to no avail. I guess they just couldn't afford any pesticides because the movie would be over too quickly. The title of the movie "Phase IV" is something of a mystery. This is not a spoiler, but "Phase I" starts right after the opening credits whereas you don't reach "Phase IV" until the end credits roll. Apparently the director knew the movie would be tedious to get through and so placed Phases 1 - 3 throughout the movie as a kind of progress report: "Hang in there buddy! Only 1 more phase until final credits!" As a MST3K episode, this one wasn't very good for two reasons: 1) This one is from the Season 0 on KTMA when they were first starting out so the riffing is not as good as in later seasons; and 2) This movie is so bad not even J&TB can lighten it up. There are one or two Gamera references as they had just finished riffing 5 Gamera movies. The movie does have a trick/surprise ending, but I was so glad to reach the end the effect was lost on me.

Despite the dated quality of some elements, particularly the costumes this picture is, in my book, the best killer bug movie of all time. Through the use of an almost nature documentary style of photographing the ants, we really get a new perspective on the film's six-legged antagonists. There's something totally raw about the way these ants act and are shot alongside the inexorable, almost plodding pace of the piece that makes Phase IV seem amazingly, terrifyingly real. The performances by the human actors are very much in the wooden, gee-whiz style of older sci-fi but here it works. The ants are a silent, almost invisible, killer. Their creeping terror, when cut against the classic characterization of the chisel-chinned hero and the bearded professor, illustrates that the best that humanity has to offer against the threat might not be enough. A hard-to-find favorite.

This odd little Sci-Fi film takes the common 'when animals attack' horror theme, but instead of making them giant or an animal that usually attacks humans, this time it's just ants that are the focus. Of course, the idea of ants attacking humans had already been done two decades earlier with the classic monster movie 'Them!' back in 1954. However, this is not merely a retread of old grounds, as the ants here attack using the power of combined intelligence rather than new a found increase in size. This is all well and good, as the film is rather original and it stands apart from other films of a similar nature; but all in all, the 1954 film was far more entertaining and not nearly as flat. The plot focuses on a pair of scientists; one of which a man who has noticed that common ants have started becoming more intelligent. We then follow the pair, and a girl that they saved, as they study the ants inside a lab in the desert. However, the ants aren't happy about being studied, and begin to use their collective powers to torment the three people inside the lab. I respect the fact that the filmmakers obviously had a lot of ideas for this film, but most of them aren't well executed, making it; to me at least, a film full of missed opportunity. Director Saul Bass seems to care more about close-up photography than character development or plot, as he delights in capturing magnified shots of the ants, but forgets to almost everything else. The close-up photography is good, but I thought I was in for a horror film, not a documentary on insect life. The film does get off to a good start, and ideas touched upon at the start are brought forward later on. The ant is a fascinating creature, and given their organisation prowess; if an insect was to threaten human life on a mass scale, I'm sure it would be ants…but as there isn't much horror to go with this idea; so the film is never very terrifying. The ending is completely ambiguous, but it also feels rather lazy, as the film ends before we get any explanation as to why the ants suddenly got clever, and so the whole film turns out to be rather pointless. Still, at least it was somewhat original.

This is one of the strangest, suspenseful movies I've ever seen. It must have been at lest 15 years since I last saw it, and I'm still looking around for it to appear on DVD, so that must mean something! What this movie lacks in action, it makes up for in suspense, and suspense you get! I'm baffled by the fact that this movie appears to be so little-known. The beauty of these kinds of movies, is that they are not so much plot-driven as well 'atmosphere-driven' (by lack of a better word), so you can watch several times without getting bored. The Thing is another movie with the same quality. Basically: highly recommended!

To me, this movie was just plain confusing, slow, and uninteresting. Why did the aliens choose to communicate through ants? It makes no sense. The ending was muddled and made no sense whatsoever. In the end, I was hoping that the ants would kill everyone. Avoid this one at all costs. Not even MST3K could save it.