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Phase IV
[Legend]
1974; color
Directed Saul Bass
Starring: Michael Murphy, Nigel Davenport & Lynne Frederick
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This is the second week in a row where I've reviewed a movie that starts with an eclipse as a portend of global doom. Phase IV comes from a completely different universe than Born Of Fire however, both cinematically and thematically. This time around it's pure '70s sci-fi with a minor dose of shock / horror added in for good measure. The aforementioned eclipse is Phase I, and the action starts with Phase II when two scientists journey to a remote stretch of Arizona desert to investigate strange goings-on. Apparently the effect of the eclipse was ants - of all different size and species - began communicating with each other and functioning as intelligent groups. (Not only are we told this via voiceover, but we see a group of ants in a circle all gesturing with their antenna and pincers as if they're carrying on conversations.) The scientists arrive at an abandoned housing development, find the homes all crumbling to dust and a mysterious grouping of geometric dirt pillars. Then they stumble across what looks like a crop circle in the middle of a cornfield and also find a number of dead sheep with curious holes bored into them. It turns out the field belongs to a farmer who, along with his wife, daughter and farmhand, are the only people who haven't packed up and left the area. The scientists serve them with a temporary evacuation order ("for their own safety"), which they promptly ignore. Next the men set up their base camp, a large geodesic dome that looks it was pilfered from the set of the sci-fi TV show of the same era, Space:1999. The next night, the ants attack not only the farm family, but the dome as well. Unaware the family is trying to gain refuge inside the dome, the scientists blast the area with pesticide, not only killing the ants but the family. Except for the girl, who hides in a nearby basement shelter. The scientists find her the next day and take her back to the dome, but not before one of the creepiest scenes in the movie: when they pry open the dead farmhand's hand and ants start slowly crawling out of holes bored into his palm. Over the next few days the ants go all hi-tech - or at least as hi-tech as ants can go - building super-reflective pylons around the dome that radiate the sun's heat, thus turning said dome into an oven and baking the computers, the dome's air conditioning unit, the scientists and the girl. One of the scientists figures out that a specific high frequency tone will not only drive the ants crazy, it will crumble the pylons. He uses this form of attack, and the ants only get more pissed. Eventually everything pretty much goes to hell and, by the time we get to Phase IV, let's just say the ants are more than just a threat. In typically '70s sci-fi fashion, the end implies the future of mankind does not bode well at all. There's something about this kooky little movie that, despite it being a bit drawn out at times, makes me recommend it to more than just the sci-fi fans out there.
—the Kommandant
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