Them!
Them! is on. As I always do when it's on, I am watching. Yes, I confess, I may be a bit over fond of this 1954 giant bug film. It scared me when I first saw it as a preteen on the creature double feature.
These days, I still find the sound of the ants creepy and I admire how well the story is told. Plus, you know, giant ants!
The filmmakers knew that an audience can be scared more by what it cannot see than what it can. For the first third of the film, we hear the danger, but we cannot see it (very much reminds me of Jaws). When we finally see it, the filmmakers do what they can to mask it so that the monster is more scary than amusing (after all, how do you make a giant, hairy ant scary). When we first see the monster, it is masked in a sand storm. Later, they are hidden by smoke or in damp drains.
Ratcheting up the tension, we meet victims. A little girl wandering alone in the desert so traumatized she cannot speak, her blank stare unnerving. A destroyed camper in the desert. A man's home torn apart. Always, the sound of wind. Occasionally, the sound of the ants.
I love James Whitmore's performance. I love that the scientist's daughter is a capable scientist in her own right and isn't there just to scream (though she does scream the first time she sees one of Them.)
What can I say? The giant ants won my heart years ago.
These days, I still find the sound of the ants creepy and I admire how well the story is told. Plus, you know, giant ants!
The filmmakers knew that an audience can be scared more by what it cannot see than what it can. For the first third of the film, we hear the danger, but we cannot see it (very much reminds me of Jaws). When we finally see it, the filmmakers do what they can to mask it so that the monster is more scary than amusing (after all, how do you make a giant, hairy ant scary). When we first see the monster, it is masked in a sand storm. Later, they are hidden by smoke or in damp drains.
Ratcheting up the tension, we meet victims. A little girl wandering alone in the desert so traumatized she cannot speak, her blank stare unnerving. A destroyed camper in the desert. A man's home torn apart. Always, the sound of wind. Occasionally, the sound of the ants.
I love James Whitmore's performance. I love that the scientist's daughter is a capable scientist in her own right and isn't there just to scream (though she does scream the first time she sees one of Them.)
What can I say? The giant ants won my heart years ago.