Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Empire of the Ants Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 15, 2015

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.

My hometown of Portland is currently under a major incursion of ants, making Empire of the Ants seem particularly relevant. Both my personal home as well as a number of my neighbors have seen incredible “invasions” of lines of ants dutifully climbing up and over the sides of houses (and occasionally even inside) in their relentless search for food. Empire of the Ants begins with a brief narrated sequence which shows just these sorts of activities, as a portentous voiceover informs the viewer of just how smart and strong the typical everyday ant really is, as well as how they communicate through ineluctable pheromones, scents which proffer a "biological imperative" which cannot be ignored. Of course that little factoid turns out to be an important plot point as the film continues.

This being a Bert I. Gordon film, typical everyday ants don’t really have much chance of making an appearance in the film, and indeed after a spill of radioactive waste (something that clearly points to the fact that, despite its attribution, this really isn’t all that tethered to a novel by H.G. Wells), ants assume mutant proportions and begin swarming over a gaggle of “castaways” who are marooned on an island that is supposedly going to be the scene of an impressive new real estate development.

When ordinary ants manage to slurp up some shimmering radioactive waste, they more or less immediately transform into the (gi)ants who go on to dominate the rest of the film, as the gaggle of prospective real estate purchasers go into panic mode, swarming in their own way through a fetid tropical environment. As in many Gordon films, there are a number of whimsical “special effects” moments, with outsized insects attacking not just those poor hapless humans, but various modes of egress (including a boat).

Empire of the Ants ultimately devolves into pure silliness in its final act when the film gets into a mind control element that is weirdly reminiscent of 1950s anti-Communist science fiction propaganda like Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the original Invaders from Mars (the link is for the remake, currently the only version available domestically on Blu-ray). Logic is thrown to the wind fairly early in this enterprise anyway, but inquiring minds may want to muse about how quickly the ants grow and manage to completely take over the island, with not just the human population either decimated or under the sway of their sticky little ant "thumbs," but with a whole supporting infrastructure as well. Rome wasn't built in a day, but evidently this particular empire was.

Empire of the Ants Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Bert I. Gordon. Mr. B.I.G. himself isn't quite as recondite as he was on his The Food of the Gods commentary, but host Kevin Sean Michaels still has to work overtime to get Gordon to deliver anecdotes.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:19)


• Radio Spot (1080p; 1:00) plays over a reproduction of the film's poster.


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 3:12)

Empire of the Ants Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.