Empire of the Ants

Empire of the Ants is a 1977 SF/horror film inspired by an H.G. Wells short story, which can be read online. The film is directed by Bert Gordon, who also did The Cyclops. It stars Joan Collins (she was nominated for a Saturn Award for this film for Best Actress in a Science Fiction film), Robert Lansing (who has an original series Star Trek connection) and Robert Pine (who has Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise connections).

It begins with 1 1/2 minutes of narration spoken over a background of little ants busily engaged in typical ant behavior, carrying pieces of leaves, etc. The ants do ant-like things throughout the movie, while the people respond as you might expect.

watch it online:


Moria concludes with, "Empire of the Ants solidly and resolutely rests atop a pile of Z movie forgettability." 1000 Misspent Hours says, "More than anything else, Empire of the Ants points to the dangers inherent in using Gordon’s favorite special effects techniques." TimeOut calls it "drastically boring". Rotten Tomatoes hates it, with the top critics giving it the lowest ratings possible. The New York Times says, "It's no picnic". cute