Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Dead Ant Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 16, 2019

For those of you who may have been spending a lot of time wondering what a film combining elements of This Is Spinal Tap and Them! might look like, your long national nightmare is over. Unfortunately, it may have only been replaced by another somewhat shorter national nightmare, since Dead Ant, while intermittently goofily amusing, is never quite able to sustain its manic comedic fury. Instead, the film tends to tip over into relentless noise, and in fact it’s the almost ceaseless decibel level of this entry that may end up putting some viewers (and/or listeners) off. A has been band called Sonic Grave has been trying to retweak its seriously dated image, courtesy of some endless haranguing by manager Danny (Tom Arnold). Bandmates Merrick (Jake Busey) and Pager (Rhys Coiro) aren’t seeing eye to eye, with Merrick lamenting their bygone days at the top of the charts courtesy of a “power ballad”, a genre that Pager doesn’t even want mentioned in his presence. A chance of a comeback looms in any case, courtesy of some booking magic on the part of Danny, though he only sheepishly admits after some prodding that the band’s tour trailer (they’re not even in an RV) is not headed toward Coachella, but instead to a perhaps lesser known alternative called No-chella.

Before the whole band element is even introduced, Dead Ant begins with what might be called a Carlos Castaneda-ish vignette of a dippy Valley Girl type interacting with two mysterious strangers, one of whom seems to be a Native American (there’s a whole unabashedly un-PC sequence later in the film, after the band has been introduced, dealing with what to call “Indians”). The Native American is rather cheekily named Bigfoot (Michael Horse), while his diminutive assistant is named Firecracker (Danny Woodburn). The two are dealing peyote, but they warn the prospective Valley Girl customer that she may not like the effects of the drug. In an elision which really isn’t adequately explained, while she buys the goods in the dead of night, around a campfire no less, she’s instantly transported to high noon in what one assumes is the American Southwest, where she’s being chased by giant mutant ants. Because this film is not exactly an exemplar of Noel Coward level verbal wit, the poor girl decides the only way to evade the attacking insect is to remove all of her clothing, so that the presumed demographic most interested in a film of this ilk, namely hormonal boys, at least get some nice footage of full frontal nudity before the credits even roll. Well, all righty then.

The other band members, Art (Sean Astin) and Stevie (Leisha Hailey), are the ones with an agenda to visit Bigfoot and Firecracker, whom they apparently already know will be able to deliver a few “party favors” — for a price (there’s a kind of funny sight gag with regard to forms of payment Bigfoot accepts). The purchase comes with a kind of pantheistic warning to respect all forms of life or else beware the consequences, and unfortunately a bit later when Art has to relieve himself out in the desert, he isn’t especially mindful of some ants. There are consequences galore, not just for the band, but for two groupies who have come along for the ostensible “fun”.

There are bits here that are quite effective in their own unabashedly raunchy way (the initial meeting with the two groupies is a good example), but the film, despite its generally genial ambience, tips over into “bad trip” territory, as may be best exemplified by the supplement listed below entitled Tom Arnold Bloody Stump (which would be a most excellent band name in my opinion). The final revelation about what will finally end the characters’ long national nightmare, or at least drug induced hysteria, seems almost willfully lifted from the similar (identical?) denouement in Mars Attacks!.

Dead Ant Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dead Ant is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. I continue to be generally more pleased with RED captures than Arri Alexa, mostly due to what to my eyes is often better shadow detail in RED captures, and that continues to the case here. As can easily be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, while some of the "CGI" is almost hilariously lo-fi, hokey and soft looking (see screenshot 16 for a good example), the overall image is appealing sharp and well detailed when divorced from green screen or SFX aspects. An especially robust outdoor palette is another notable feature, with some incredibly blue skies on display. A number of close-ups offer excellent levels of fine detail, though a few isolated close-ups are supposedly drug induced POV shots, and are understandably skewed and softened. Quite a bit of the film plays out in the somewhat darkened confines of the trailer, where a number of characters take refuge, and occasionally there is some haziness in fleeting shots, but even here detail levels continue to be quite impressive.

Dead Ant Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dead Ants features an extremely boisterous and robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which regularly utilizes the surround channels and which provides some ample low end, courtesy of both sound effects and some of the churning music. So why "only" a 4.5 score? This is a track that pretty much turns everything "up to 11" (if I may quote a certain Nigel Tufnel), and rarely lets up. It just gets to be tiring after a while, or at least it was to me. That said, especially for those with a higher tolerance for just a nonstop onslaught of both screamed dialogue and goofy sound effects, this is a whirlwind track. I will say that some of the high frequency "ant noises" got close to shrill "fingernails on a blackboard" territory for me.

Dead Ant Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As can be gleaned from the timings included below, almost all of the supplements are very short snippets, generally detailing some behind the scenes activity.

• Side Boob Music Video (1080p; 3:23)


• Sonic Grave Pre-Stage (1080p; 0:33)


• Firecracker / Bigfoot Hug (1080p; 0:17)


• Sonic Grave Jam Session (1080p; 1:14)


• Building No-Chella (1080i; 00:42)


• Pager Stunt vs. Movie (1080p; 00:20)


• Tom Arnold Bloody Stump (1080p; 00:38)


• Sean Goes Bowling (1080p; 00:33)


• Pitching a Tent (1080p; 2:05)


• Dead Ant Trailer (1080p; 2:17)

Dead Ant Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Without encouraging any kind of substance abuse, it's my considered opinion that large swaths of Dead Ant may well play better to "enhanced" and/or "altered" eyes and ears. It has some fun bits, and it's completely obvious that everyone involved is winking fairly broadly at the audience, which helps, but a lot of the film can't help but come off as derivative, even if what it's stealing from turns out to be highly variant. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.