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Them! Reviews
Not just a great creature feature, but one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. The opening scenes in the desert are stellar, a perfect combo of sound, set design, cinematography, and acting as the two policeman try to determine what’s responsible for all the carnage. The special effects are also outstanding. I’m going to run out of superlatives if I keep writing—a must-see for any fan of fun monster movies!
THEM! is hands down the best big bug movie, with TARANTULA close behind. The mystery is scary from the start. Giant ants being fought with flame throwers is so impressive that it seems as if it inspired James Cameron with ALIENS.
It's not scary and it doesn't make you think. What more could you ask for in an old sci-fi?
During the 1950s, science fiction was still something of a disreputable genre, with only a handful of movies being made on a larger budget. We had to wait until the 1960s if not the 1970s before moviemakers discovered the potential of sci-fi to be turned into blockbusters in which a good deal of money could be invested, and the cash returned in good box office. One effect of this situation is that the best sci-fi movies of the 50s bear a resemblance to the worst. In the case of Them, we see a number of the features that we associate with the bad movies of later – for example, multiple scenes of officials sat in offices talking about the situation; dubious gender politics; or the curious convention that ensures that the people who discover the problem are the ones who are around to help resolve the situation at the end. This leads to the unlikely scenario in Them of a police officer and FBI agent joining the soldiers in the final assault. Many of the special effects used are also reminiscent of bad sci-fi movies – crude models for close-up shots, enlarged images of real creatures walking in miniature landscapes, or added in process shots which forbid their interaction with the human characters; or creatures wandering on matte paintings. Them may have been one of the highest grossing movies of its year, but conservative moviemakers kept the budget low. Plans to make the movie in colour and 3D were scrapped, and only three ants ever appear on the screen at the same time, even though we are told that there may be thousands of them. What makes movies such as Them superior is a flair, imagination and intelligence that lifts them above the flaws of the commonplace low-budget science fiction movies of the 1950s. The special effects were decent for the time, though these methods have now been replaced by computer generated images in modern movies, which many see as more convincing. What Them has to offer is something different – visual images that haunt the imagination in spite of their technical flaws, and interesting stories and ideas that allow us to suspend our disbelief. The influence of the movie might be said to have been unfortunate – it was imitated in numerous giant bug movies, and many sci-fi films that used the talkative style of the movie as a lazy way to keep costs down. As a result, Them may be among the first giant bug movies, but it remain one of the only decent ones that was ever made. I wrote a longer appreciation of Them comparing it to Tarantula on my blog page if you would like to read more: https://themoviescreenscene.wordpress.com/2017/10/03/arrival-of-the-bug-movies-them-1954-and-tarantula-1955/
A Classic Horror Sci-Fi Movie. The acting is really good with a phenomenal performance from Edmund Gwenn who does a excellent job of making the whole thing believable and grounded in reality. Everyone else is solid also with the only real complaint being they all sort of blend in and don't have much else to them besides explaining plot. Even Whitmore who starts out as the main character sort of disappears until the end in the second half. The music is really good also but I wouldn't call it catchy or memorable but always amps up the tension and action extremely well. The editing is excellent. This merges a Sci-Fi story with Horror elements beautifully and always stays focused on the main plot. Although the same can't be said for characters at times. It still does an amazing job merging the two genres and keeping it grounded. The cinematography is very well done also. The flamethrower scenes are amazing and the ant hives are really cool and imaginative. The black and white works really well and the camerawork is good. The only complaints are while the ants look good for the time they are a bit dated and not really scary but they are cool. The pacing is very good also with the only really flaw being while this does generate tension and surprisingly great action it has trouble sustaining it consistently because it explains A LOT of plot throughout and it can get weighed down and gets rid of any suspense or creeps for a while but it always roars back. Anyone who is a fan of any actors in this, the director, or Horror/Sci-Fi in general will really like this.
Are you nostalgic for 1950's atomic era, giant insect horror sci fi action ? Well, this movie will satisfy that need. First half of the movie is best, keeping the terror local, confined to a small desert town. The eerie atmosphere, weird sounds, that enhance the dread and spookiness factors, which just keep building and building. Great stuff. But once the ant attack spreads nationwide, the second half of the movie loses some impact. Despite that, the battle spectacle of soldiers and cops, machine gunning, grenade launching, flame throwing the beasts, is all kinds of awesome. Also nice to see the movie grounded by old school Hollywood acting by stars James Whitmore, James Arness, and Fess Parker.
Make me a sargent in charge of the booze! Famous quote made by old sterno bum.
This movie may look like a grade B movie, but it is far from any grade B movie you have ever seen. A superior film that is highly underrated. Good writing and the special effects make this movie a great one!
I grade movies on the sliding scale based on genre and budget; this Creature Feature gets a passing grade mostly for the volume of special effects. How the Property Department managed to churn out that many giant bugs, only to see them incinerated en mass, or how they avoided on-set fatalities with all those flame throwers in action, is beyond me. This one checks all the formula's boxes including the Hot AF lady scientist. Marshall Dillon [James Arness] and Daniel Boone [Fes Parker] help save humanity, ... but, do they, really?
Don't listen to the millennials that have to have the latest whizbang CGI with no plot… This is a great movie and a lot of fun. Very popular in its time, it stands out as a superlative science-fiction classic. Loved watching it in the 70s and it's just as much fun now.
Somehow not even the only film I've seen this past week where ants were the villains; shoutout to Phase IV. When '50s filmmakers use scary ants it's fun, when Indiana Jones fights them it's just silly. Featuring some large-scale effects and a brisk pace, Them! is one of the defining midcentury monster films, a decade where every threat was getting bigger and usually could be traced back to something nuclear. There's a pretty solid sense of fear coarsing through this one, it drops you in the deep end with a shocked kid wandering around the desert in a daze, and the monsters are both intimidating up close and as a distant threat to humanity. The ants themselves don't really move around too much by virtue of the limitations of prop design, but articulate as well as you can with your feet glued to the floor; it takes some creative editing to get some soldiers in their pincers. Some of the performances seem a bit more akin to sleepwalking, there's a shoehorned romantic angle, and it's too formative to be self-aware, but overall it's still a decent representative of where the monster genre was heading, with science as the big bad and Wilhelm screams galore (I counted three, maybe four). Leonard Nimoy's apparently got a bit part somewhere in here, but I guess I wasn't paying quite enough attention to pick him out. (3/5)
For the time this movie was made it was pretty good.
An early, if not the first of the atomic age giant monster movies. If you can get yourself in a 50s mindset, it's plenty effective, with some genuinely creepy moments. Nothing beats watching this as a kid on an old 온라인카지노추천 late at night.
Normally I like giant mutation movies, but this film just drags on and on. Really bad for a major studio like Warner Bros. The 90 minute run time felt like four hours. Ugh. I'd rather watch the far more entertaining Tarantula!
Holds up after all these years!
this is one of my favorite movies of all time,i saw this on the late show movies that they used to show when i was younger and it scared the crap out of me.if ants ever got to be this size we wouldnt stand a chance.something to think about.insects in general outnumber us a billion to 1 at least and they are organized
I watched it to see more of James Whitmore, whom I saw in Asphalt Jungle (below) and wanted to see in other roles. His character is more prominent here but Whitmore did twice the acting in Asphalt Jungle in half the screen time. Edmund Gwenn gives an effortlessly delightful performance, James Arness looks and sounds a little like John Wayne, and bit players Olin Howland and Fess Parker are excellent. The ending does feel (as others have said) rushed: both Whitmore's character's death and the little monologue are hokey. What's worth remarking, in these days, is that scientists are called on to save the day, they're listened to, and it works. And, that of three doctors in this 1954 film, two are women. The younger Dr Medford looks ... scientific in that jumpsuit [Bob Hope voice], and the pediatrician has the classic bluestocking look, tight hair and glasses which she'll take off later when Humphrey Bogart comes through with a bottle of rye in his pocket. Both are in charge, the pediatrician educating the FBI guy and the younger Dr Medford giving orders and being addressed as Doctor by her father, who doesn't wring his hands when she decides to go in after the ants. (The pediatrician isn't given a name, and I can't find the name of the actress anywhere.) I spotted Richard Deacon (not that it's hard to do) and I think it was Nimoy who took the teletype and brought it over to the secretary.