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Dir. Gordon Douglas
USA
Film #2, for Tuesday 2nd October, of Halloween 31 for 31
While we may laugh at the
saucer-tin saucers and the effects, modern film viewers forget that the
American science fiction B-movies of the 1950s are all inextricably connected
to the culture they came from. Following an outbreak of giant ants that have
grown because of nuclear radiation and may become a threat to human life, this
is completely threaded into fears of the nuke and nuclear fallout of the period, after the atomic bombings of
Japan and the after-effects, and in the middle of the Cold War and the fears
around it. The film also admits that for most human beings, insects are
disgusting creatures to them. Completely different to mammals with their
exoskeletons and their mandibles, insects along with other invertebrate species
are unsettling in their differences to us.
Considering all the other giant/killer/mutated
animal films throughout cinema, from giant shrews to sharktopuses, rabid dogs
who were once loving companions to our (potential) evolutionary ancestors the
ape, humanity fears even its own fellow mammals, and all other species,
subconsciously. Despite our apparent higher consciousness, and souls depending
on your spiritual beliefs, we still cannot stand that the ‘mindless’ animals
may survival long after our species perishes or that, if the favour was tipped
to the other’s side, the chances of staying in the top rungs of the ‘survival
of the fittest’ would be 50/50. As one of the characters points out directly,
ants have intelligence and are a species with a concept of war and hierarchy,
and if they developed higher intelligence, or grew to the size of the ones in Them, it would make them difficult
competitors in a conflict with us. All genre films, even if it involves
accepting many are made for money only and having to either improvise or pull
ideas out of your backside, show metaphors and fears of humanity within them
regardless of the quality of the product itself, or at least show a perspective
on social anxieties and thoughts. And it doesn’t have to descend into
pretentiousness either as many can be read immediately and sometimes just
before watching the film, only adapting it afterwards and the actual material
redevelops the establishing thoughts. The films so far for my Halloween viewing
all have layers even if one was paper thin. Vampyrs (1974), the aborted first film for my work which is still
useful to pull from and as a scapegoat until I get over it, continues vampirism
as a metaphor for libertine, alternative sexuality viewed as evil and
degenerate by stereotypical Western, heterosexual, Christian society, and yet
secretly is titillating and tempting, keeping with Christian issues of
temptation and sin, especially if it involves nubile lesbianism. Even with the open
minded liberals, including myself at my dumbest, they can see alternative
sexuality as merely exotic titillation and nothing else, especially if it
involves nubile lesbianism. Footprints
On The Moon (1975) depicts a metaphor of how psychological breakdown can be
viewed as completely alien, sending sufferers into places of their mind
different from the world around them, and something that merely exists on
another planet to certain members of society who wish to ignore it. Them shows how, despite our apparent
love for animals (usually the cute ones), most of us subconsciously hate the
fact that we’re animals like the untamed ‘them’, part of the food chain, and
would want them removed, or eliminated with fire, from our human society. Also the
fact that, if one grew to the size of a small skyscraper, we would fall to the
bottom of the food chain immediately. That Godzilla has ‘God’ in his name may
have more metaphorical significance then we all thought...that and the fact
that, considering their history of Kaiju films I’ve still to dive into, the
Japanese still show utter respect and understanding to nature and animalism
even if its rampaging through Tokyo nearly every week and scaring the tourists.
Them does suffer when the ants are finally seen. It is solid, nuts
and bolts filmmaking which does suffer from its constant expeditionary dialogue,
and desire just to show mechanically created ants menace the cast and not go further
with it, far from the opening segment where there is quite a menace that the preconceived
notions of this film did not inform me of. Destroyed, isolated areas, bizarre
noises in the vast emptiness of the desert setting where it starts in, traumatised
children, all established by considerably striking black and white
cinematography. As invisible menaces, even if you know what to expect and what
they look like, they are sinister, hidden in the outdoor landscape despite
their size and yet able to create vast amounts of casualties and damage. When the
awkwardly moving, but visibly impressive ants do appear, the film sits a little
on its laurels onward afterwards around them. That said it was still solid,
good entertainment that gets over this problem, one of the few films in a while
that was able to find humour in itself and yet, impossible to do now unless
someone was brave enough, taking itself seriously and was matter-of-fact within
its world. Almost every character accepts the concept of giant, radiated ants
as true and get on with their work, while most genre films in the sixty or so
decades afterwards would have the protagonists spending whole chapters of a
film convincing people they are not crazy and this is actually happening. It’s refreshing
when most of us horror and sci-fi fans are probably excruciatingly sick of the cliché,
and I am surprised by a more ‘naive’ film from a ‘naive’ era cutting through
the cop-out pretences and getting on with things. Also despite its flaws, Them still has the advantage in that,
combining its premise with practical effects, it has the sense of the icky
fantastic; the scenes likely to stick in my mind are within the ant’s nest in
the desert near the beginning, vast isolated tunnels in the earth full of giant
ants and egg sacks. I can’t help but reference videogames with one of the few I’ve
played in years, and the rare one I actually loved, called Earth Defense Force 2017 (2006), whose primary enemies were huge
swarms of giant ants and had countless levels in repetitive, claustrophobic
mound tunnels; the game has probably made the already great Starship Troopers (1997) more
entertaining as well as a satirical gem, and as a B-movie game probably
influenced by this and Japanese cinema, it has made films like this for more
joyfully engaging in their imaginative pulpiness. That it has the seriousness too
and explicitly weaves ideas of the Cold War, atomic power and our fear of primitive
animalism within its B-movie story adds to its charm. Eventually I may
encounter a ‘bad’ film and have to review it, unlike Vampyrs, but two days in there is this great optimism that even the
films like this - which despite its classic status and Oscar nomination for
effects is a true B-movie at heart and is unapologetic about it like true art -
will stick out and not waste time with laziness. It helps that, in reference to
the introductory post I wrote before the reviews that, when talking about films
you find in your local library that give you something different, this was a
DVD I kept seeing in my local city library and was not disappointed by when I
finally rented it. While most of the films the library stocks are new releases,
regardless of the few eclectic choices, it’s nice to see a fifties film, an old
timer, snuggled just above the children’s section and near films like Who’s Your Caddy? (2007) waiting for someone to catch it out of
their eye out of intrigue.
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