‘When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world…’
Horror cinema has always been a reflection of the times. The use of nuclear weapons in World War Two and the subsequent literal and metaphorical fallout coloured horror cinema for at least a decade afterwards. While Godzilla is the most famous son of the post-atomic age, Gordon Douglas’ Them! from 1954 is almost as lauded. Who would have thought that a film about giant ants could be so effective?
When police sergeant Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and his partner, Ed Blackburn (Chris Drake), stumble across a mute and traumatised girl wandering around in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, New Mexico, it is clear that something very strange has happened. It’s only bloody giant ants. Edmund Gwenn, aka Santa Claus from A Miracle on 34th Street, is also knocking about, being unsurprisingly good-natured and avuncular.
While I’ve always been dimly aware of the rash of horror/sci-fi hybrids that emerged throughout the 1950s, I’ve mostly avoided them due to my perception that their reliance on practical effects would render them unwatchable through a modern lens. And look, when the giant ants do appear in Them!, sure, they’re a little agricultural and dated, but I’ve seen much worse in films with bigger budgets and more resources, and it is clear that Douglas knows his way around a disaster movie. It helps that the cast understand the assignment, and while they never go full camp, nor do they pretend that this is anything other than what it is – a film created to try and tempt teenagers away from their television sets and into their local theatre or drive-thru.
Along with the original incarnations of The Thing and The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Them! represents a high point in this very specific period of cinema informed by nuclear anxiety and apocalyptic overtones. Decent.
