One would think that director Saul Bass, whose credit sequences for such films as Hitchcock's PSYCHO are nearly as interesting as the films themselves, could pump some energy into this potentially interesting premise, but all he comes up with is an overly intellectual bore.
Phase IV
United Kingdom, United States · 1974
Rated PG · 1h 26m
Director Saul Bass
Starring Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford
Genre Thriller, Horror, Science Fiction
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Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The A.V. Club by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
It’s a movie that seems to have been designed more than directed, and edited around principles of color and line, rather than around performance or plot.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
So-so ecological SF thriller from 1974 about superintelligent ants.
In form, Phase IV isn’t that different from monster movies of old, though the ants never grow to monstrous size. In execution, it’s much more striking, offering a study in contrasts between ants and humans, and one that doesn’t always reflect favorably on the humans.
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