Empire of the Ants is a 1977 science fiction

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 by Bert I. Gordon

Bert I. Gordon

Bert I. Gordon is an American film director most famous for such science fiction and horror B-movies as The Amazing Colossal Man and Village of the Giants....

. Based very loosely on Empire of the Ants

Empire of the Ants

"Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells, which inspired a film of the same title in 1977. The story involves an explorer who is dispatched to South America to investigate reports of intelligent ants destroying a colony. It was published in 1905 in The Strand...

by H.G. Wells, the film involves a group of prospective land buyers led by a land developer, pitted against giant, mutated ants.

Plot

A heavenly paradise becomes a hellish nightmare when a toxic spill turns harmless ants into gigantic rampaging monster insects. Stumbling into their creepy lair, land developer Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins

Joan Collins

Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...

) and her clients are horrified to realize the ants are devouring humans. Fleeing for their lives, they discover the giant ants are determined to exterminate humankind and build an evil empire.

Special effects

As with most Bert I. Gordon films, the giant ants are rendered by way of photographically enlarged animal footage and rear projection. The size of the ants varies from scene to scene. They often appear to suddenly crawl off the ground and walk vertically upwards in thin air. This is due to real ants being placed in a set lined with photographs of the locations where the scenes were shot. When an ant walked onto the rear photograph it appeared to walk on the sky. Where the film calls for actors to interact with the ants, large mock-up props are used.

Cast

• Joan Collins
  Joan Collins
  Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
  
   as Marilyn Fryser
• Robert Lansing
  Robert Lansing (actor)
  Robert Lansing was an American stage, film and television actor.Born in San Diego, California as Robert Howell Brown, he reportedly took his acting surname from the state capital of Michigan. As a young actor in New York City, he was hired to join a stock company in Michigan, but was told he would...
  
   as Dan Stokely
• John David Carson
  John David Carson
  John David Carson was an American actor. He was born in North Hollywood, California. Carson began his career at a young age, acting in television advertisements, and later doing cartoon voice-acting for Hanna-Barbera. He attended Los Angeles Valley College where he played a lead role in their 1969...
  
   as Joe Morrison
• Albert Salmi
  Albert Salmi
  Albert Salmi was an American actor.-Biography:Albert Salmi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Finnish immigrant parents, and following a stint in the Army, took up acting as a career, studying Method acting with Lee Strasberg. In 1955, Salmi starred in Bus Stop on Broadway...
  
   as Sheriff Art Kincade
• Jacqueline Scott
  Jacqueline Scott
  Jacqueline Scott is an American actress who has appeared in several films and television programs as well as guest starring in over one hundred television shows...
  
   as Margaret Ellis
• Pamela Susan Shoop
  Pamela Susan Shoop
  Pamela Susan Shoop is an American character actress in film and on television. She often appeared in shows created by Glen A. Larson.Shoop's best known film role was in the 1981 horror film Halloween II, as Karen, a nurse...
  
   (as Pamela Shoop) as Coreen Bradford
• Robert Pine
  Robert Pine
  Robert Pine is an American actor who has starred on television and in film. He is probably best known for his role as Sgt. Joseph Getraer on the hit NBC television series CHiPs from 1977 to 1983.-Personal life:...
  
  as Larry Graham