5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sleazy scam artist Joan Collins tries to sell phony real estate deals down in the Florida everglades. What she and her unsuspecting buyers don't know is the area has been taken over by giant ants!
Starring: Joan Collins, Robert Lansing (I), Jacqueline Scott, Robert Pine, Albert SalmiHorror | 100% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is currently available as part of the double feature Empire of the Ants / Jaws of Satan.
There must be something in the air, or perhaps the water, for a number of new(ish) Blu-ray releases are featuring one of the hoariest tropes in
horror films, namely marauding beasts of one sort or another. Some of these outings actually feature giant beasts, as is the case in
another recent Scream Factory double feature which paired
The Food of the Gods (giant beasts) with Frogs
(good old normal size nasties), but in case more outsized creepy crawly villains are your particular cup o’ tea, there’s also the new VCI
Entertainment release The Giant Spider Invasion
. This Scream Factory double feature is somewhat similar to The Food of the Gods / Frogs, in that one film features mutated creatures (and is the product of the fervid
imagination of Bert I. Gordon), while the second deals with putatively more mundane (if admittedly still kind of large) slithering entities.
Empire of the Ants is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer
in 1.85:1. There's a wide if expected disparity between the looks of the optical effects (which are numerous) and the standard footage in this
transfer, with the opticals perhaps deserving something closer to the 3-3.25 range and the non-optical moments inching up closer to 3.75 or
even 4.0. A lot of the bright outdoor footage not involving optical effects boasts strong color and good to excellent detail (see screenshot 1).
Optical effects sequences are noticeably grainier and softer looking, with an attendant uptick in dirt as well, all elements which should be
expected. Colors can be just slightly dowdy looking in the opticals (see screenshot 4). (One of this film's most notable effects is a POV trope
obviously culled from The Fly. See screenshot 3 for an example.)
Note: While this disc loaded perfectly well on my PS3, when I tried to play it with PowerDVD on my PC drive to check the resolution of
supplements, it kept stopping at a black boot up screen with a 00:25 (second) timing. Only when I manually dragged the slider to the end of the
00:25 timecode did it then boot to the first menu allowing access to either film.
Empire of the Ants features an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 mono track which can sound just slightly brittle in its highest registers (typically went the ants "screech"). Otherwise, this is a solid presentation which more than adequately supports the film's dialogue (such as it is), sound effects and middling score by Dana Kaproff. Fidelity is fine and there are no issues of any kind to warrant concern.
Empire of the Ants is just good, goofy fun, the kind of movie that was meant to be enjoyed at a drive-in or Saturday matinee. This is a film which doesn't stand up to even the slightest inspection, but don't let that stop you from exulting in yet another adventure from the giant obsessed mind of Bert I. Gordon. Technical merits are generally good (video) to excellent (audio), and Scream has added on a couple of decent supplements. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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