Rent Phase IV (1974)

Human Endgame. - Phase IV review by Steve

Nerdy update of the fifties creature feature which feels fairly realistic thanks to its low key production design and subdued performances, but actually conforms to normal genre rules. Following a mysterious cosmic accident, the behaviour of desert ants is transformed. They show signs of a hive intelligence and hostility towards humans. And build intriguing, geometric earth structures.

It's the kind of sci-fi where mankind seeks to understand the threat through technology. Though the budget only ran to two ant specialists, with Nigel Davenport as the mad scientist, and Michael Murphy as his more sensitive sidekick. Lynne Frederick is the barefoot local girl who ends up in their remote desert laboratory by chance.

But there are no giant ants or ray-guns. It's a slow procedural film which utilises painstaking blow-ups of insect photography to illustrate the apocalyptic narrative. So not for the bug-phobic. Though the story is interesting, really it's the experimental synthesiser score, the psychedelic computer graphics and the eerie desert setting which give the film its identity.

It feels like a weird trip, or a head movie. The director- Saul Bass- remains most famous for storyboarding the shower scene in Psycho. But though Phase IV bombed at the box office, it had a second life on television and became quite influential. Not only among experimental film makers, but it's reckoned that the crop circles made by the ants were copied by real life pranksters.

70s SciFi with an Interesting Idea - Phase IV review by GI

An interesting science fiction film from the 1970s that oozes originality but fails in pacing and has an anticlimactic conclusion. An anomaly in space results in ants beginning to communicate across their different species and gain advanced intelligence. This goes unnoticed except by a British scientist who, assisted by a communications expert, sets up a laboratory in the Arizona desert to study the ants who have built strange towering structures there. They are forced to rescue a local girl after her parents are killed and they are soon faced with subtle yet effective attacks as the ants infiltrate their supposedly secure unit. Nigel Davenport is the committed scientist, obsessive and prepared to take risks, Michael Murphy his assistant and Lynne Frederick as the beautiful girl who finds she has a role to play in the ants' plans. This has some exceptional cinematography in the insect sequences and all completed with real ants. To that extent this is an impressive idea but it fails to adequately fulfil a narrative story leaving you feeling underwhelmed but it's a film that has some good ideas so it's worth checking out if you've never seen it.

Over-rated, dull and unsatisfying - Phase IV review by CP Customer

I do not understand why this has a 3.something rating on here. The film is thankfully short at 1:20 otherwise I would have abandoned it before the end. Even then I wish I had, because the ending is not worth even a short wait. With only 3 characters you would think there would be some development, but there isn't. And that time isn't used for plotting or sci-fi wizardry either... you just get the characters saying "what are the ants doing?" a lot... and lots of shots of ants. Bizarre.