Sci-Fi Saturday-THEM! (1954) & Beyond-Ants in the Cinema !!! And your patio, your house, in your shoes and your !!!!??? Part One
THEM! (1954) & Beyond-Ants in the Cinema !!! And your patio, your house, in your shoes and your !!!!???
It’s Bugorama-
TOP SECRET!!! \
Be on the look out for any of thing out of the ordinary or strange flying objects…unusual-missing persons or weird disappearances…
Special meetings at the top level of the government… No one is talking. “No comment” is the status quo. What are they not telling us?! Unusual sightings in the skies, strange disappearances. A lone girl found wandering in the desert. The state police, F.B.I. and the department of Agriculture all working together. Talk about odd bedfellows. What could it all mean? A nationwide order issued to stay inside!!! And a quote from the bible “
“Unless something is done and done quickly, man as the dominant species of life on Earth will be extinct within a year.”!!!
There is no word to describe THEM!
We all have seen them. Scurrying around beneath our feet. Crawling on our arm, invading our homes every spring and fall…especially if you have a sliding glass door. At least I have. Oh and they usually are the uninvited guests that show up when you have a picnic. I know you thought I was going to say Uncle Al and his family- yeah usually late and never bring a dish to pass. Some may not even pay attention to them!! But in 1954 that was about to change. At least at the local cinemas across the country. For this was the year that cinema houses would start to see a trend or what could be called a sub-genre within Science Fiction film, mutated bugs, bug people & giant-sized bugs. And it was all brought on by the atom bomb. The consequences of man’s dabbling in the unknown and with the unknown.
If you ever come across a sight like this take warning because THEM are not far behind!!!!
The film in question burst on the screen as the forerunner of this new genre/sub-genre. It provided shocks and thrills not only in the very creatures- the invaders from below the very ground we walk on. Normally conducting their business right under our very feet and us never giving it a thought. Well at least until THEM! arrived. They can lift 10 times their weight, they have an amazing social network and war like. One queen can produce 1000s of eggs from one pregnancy and they have existed for a few million years. a few million more than us. I am talking about ants and in this case desert ants…highly aggressive and intelligent.
THEM! was to have been a *3D presentation. The process that was taking theaters and the movie going public for a fun “ride”. Once you put on those crazy looking glasses with the red and green lenses everything from bubbles to flaming arrows were jumping off the screen. Imagine had Warner gone thru with this. It may have changed the perspective of the film and the very response by critics and audiences alike. Recently converted over to Hi -Def and released on Bluray format. It takes on an almost 3D look -so maybe getting the just rewards it deserves visually. The crisp, clear image and sharp audio will really make jump at times. This is the best way to enjoy it. But make sure you hide all the sugar if decide to watch TV in the midnight hour. Just would not want the ants mistaking you for a cube of sugar-remember these “little” guys can lift 10x their weight, plus the fact I just got a new couch.
- (Bluray-Warner Archive) see link below (extras…test footage of the mechanical ants)
Coming soon- part 2- THEM was just the beginning!!! It’s not a question of if -it’s a question when they’ll! return. How will we stop them? See ants of all sizes and shapes in the next installment. Until then be careful, look under your chairs, seats, blankets and picnic baskets…for ANTS!!!!
Bonus- sneak at my next ScI-FI Saturday edition The 3D Craze and the ‘50s…
- in the 50’s this was the process that movie companies thought would help protect them from that boxy thing that was popping up in peoples’ living rooms across the nation. The rest of the story next week…
Grab your 3D glasses…this works…
-This set comes with 3D glasses-
Link below to Internet Archive-
