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THEM! Revisiting the Progressive Horror Classic That Gave Birth To The Atomic Horror Genre

[screaming hysterically] AHHH! THEM! THEM! THEM!

THEM! 1954 is a horror picture released by Warner Bros, it starred James Arness (Of Gunsmoke fame) and Edmund Gwenn, best known for playing Santa in Miracle on 34th Street. It was directed by Gordon Douglas, who is perhaps best known for directing The Black Arrow and the Little Rascals film General Spanky.

In order to take a look at this film I will be using the acronym T.H.E.M.

Time

Coming in at a very brisk 94 minutes, the film never drags and moves at a very fast pace. This is both a good and bad thing, it’s good as we get to be engrossed in the action and story. However, it does suffer a bit with the overall flow of the characters and their development. For example, Dr. Weldman was a very interesting character who was progressive for the day, showing a woman who not only was smart but every bit as good of a scientist as her fellow men. Sadly due to the runtime, we don’t get to spend much time with her (or any of the males for that matter).

I really liked the characters in this film, they are funny, charming and you do care when they are in danger or die, however, the pace is so fast we often don’t have enough time to get to know them as well as I would have liked to.

A woman seen from behind looks up as a giant ant comes over a hill at her

In much the same way, the brisk runtime does not always allow the horror aspects to breathe, we get a scene of an ant infestation aboard a oceangoing ship. However, we only get a very brief moment of a crewmember calling for help and an ant breaking in and killing him. This could have been a thrilling and horrifying scene of the crew finding the ants in the dark, hold, but alas the runtime did not allow it.

At the end of the day THEM! is designed as a barebones and stripped-down horror thriller, and it succeeds at this, but I can’t help but wish we could have spent more time in this world.

Horror

THEM! is a different kind of horror film, its first half is very much a creeping, slasher mystery, as the police try to solve who is brutally murdering the citizens of a small town. Its second half moves more into the realm of a horror/thriller as the creatures have been discovered and now it’s a race to stop them before they begin multiplying and spreading across the world.

The first half of the movie is a masterclass in tension and creeping dread. As the picture opens to a missing persons case which evolves into a murder mystery, we then see a little girl wandering in the desert holding a broken doll. Terrified into muteness, she only finds her voice once she is forced to smell formic acid, and then screams in horror, “THEM!”

It’s masterful in its creeping dread, not showing who is killing citizens until we see the giant ant come over a hill. The picture utilizes a “Tell not show” in its use of gore, mentioning people being torn apart and filled with acid. We don’t see this, but the exposition is enough to let our imaginations take over.

Environments

The environments was one of the aspects that allowed the film’s creeping dread to build. The set of the trailer owned by the vacationing family that is murdered, is straight out of a horror film, as is the destroyed building where the body of the storykeeper is found. The film uses the sets and environments to build the intensity, we see the wall of the store torn away, which makes us ask, what could do this? The wonder and eeriness of the ant hive, is a beautiful moment, as our heroes descend deeper and deeper, we get a claustrophobic feeling almost akin to Dante’s descent into hell. It’s a truly alien landscape and one that humans have never explored before. Lastly, the use of the real LA storm drain system for the final battle gives a glimpse of a kind of human-created hive, and a location is very rarely shown on film. Following along as our heroes explore and descend into the watery depths is tension-filled and wonderfully filmed. 

Monsters

The villains of this picture, the giant ants, are marvelous to behold! While they may look a bit fake today, we have to view this picture within the confines of the technology that existed at the time.

Three giant ants illuminated by flashlight in a large hive
THEM! (1954)

The giant ants are all practical and are brought to life using puppetry, and the stridulations (the sounds the giant ants emit on the soundtrack) were created using the calls of bird-voiced tree frogs mixed together with the calls of a wood thrushhooded warbler, and red-bellied woodpecker. The sounds are chilling especially early in the film before we see the ants themselves.

The ants were a classic use of the unstoppable monster that can’t be reasoned with and only lives to consume and destroy. I personally found the ants and their design to be very well done for the era and budget, allowing the fear and tenseness to build for half the film before we see them, allowing the final reveal to hit that much harder!

Conclusion

THEM! was one of the first atomic monster films to come out, and this is not lost on the audience as the picture ends with a short monologue that wonders what other horrors may come from this new age. THEM! was also a progressive picture for its time, slyly critical of the military for creating the ants and for showing women in an elevated position in society, I loved seeing Dr. Patricia Medford hold her own with the male characters, she is a great showcase of femininity and strength. 

THEM! is a horror picture that grabs its viewer by the collar and refuses to let go, you will be glued to the screen for its brisk runtime and forever haunted by the eerie calls of the ants in the night.

Written by Byron Lafayette

Journalist, film critic, and author, with a (possibly unhealthy) obsession with Pirates of the Caribbean, Zack Snyder and movies in general, Byron has written for many publications over the years, yet never shows his face. To partially quote (and mangle) Batman V Superman "If you seek his face look around you"

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