Them (1954) Starring Edmund Gwenn, James Whitmore & Joan Weldon Directed by Gordon Douglas Written by Ted Sherdeman & Russell S. Hughes

The film starts off with an airplane scoping the New Mexico dessert while 2 police men, Officers Ed Blackburn and Sgt. Ben Peterson, follow it as they check out a report of a child roaming around. They manage to find the child, a little girl with a broken doll in her robe and pajamas, but can’t get a word out of her as she just stares blindly and says nothing. They deduce that she’s in shock.

They then go off to investigate a car and trailer spotted not far away. Things only get more complicated though as when they get there they discover a scene of chaos: the trailer’s wall ripped out, bloody clothes found, a fired weapon but no signs of what it hit, money for the taking but none taken, and to top it off, stolen sugar. They also find pieces of the girl’s doll and robe and what looks like an animal print they’ve never seen before. As the crime scene guys take care of the evidence, an ambulance takes the girl away, but not before they hear a strange sound that briefly breaks her trance.

Done with the trailer, Peterson and Blackburn go to the local market ran by old Gramps, but when they get there, it’s the same as the trailer: torn apart shelves, a ripped out wall, barrels of sugar taken, and a broken rifle that was fired but did nothing. The only difference is that they find old Gramps in the basement dead. Peterson goes to report in while Blackburn stays behind. Blackburn then hears the strange noise again. Going to investigate, he gets out of our view as we hear a strange roar, gunshots and him screaming.

The next day, while going over the evidence, Peterson is tearing himself up over Ed being missing. Nothing seems to make sense as there’s only sugar taken, damage and guns fired that seemed to fail to take out whatever threat it is. They then get a notice that the owner of the car and trailer is an FBI agent on vacation with his wife and two children.

We then go to later in the day as the local FBI has sent in one of there men, Robert Gram, to take part. Confused with it all, he decides to send the mysterious footprint to his people in Washington. It’s then that the coroner gives his report containing 5 different explanations of how Gramps could die. All the explanations make sense (broken parts, fractures, etc.) except the part where Gramps was filled with enough formic acid to kill nearly two dozen men.

After studying the footprint, two doctors come in to help out, Dr. Medford (a short old man) and his daughter Pat (a rather attractive young woman who catches the investigators eye). However, the doctor’s pondering starts to annoy the detectives as they find themselves excluded from the process. The doctors ask about a past nuclear test in the area and about whether a large dome shaped mound has been found.

They then go visiting the little girl who’s still in a shock induced trance, only the doctor has gotten some of the formic acid on the way over. As he holds it under her nose, she smells it and slowly breaks free, then screams and hides in the corner yelling "THEM! THEM!" and begins to cry.

Heading back out to the trailer site during a sand storm, Dr. Medford discovers another print like the one they found earlier. The detectives then start demanding some answers, but the doctor continues to imply that he can’t give answers until he’s certain.

Meanwhile, Pat, who’s gone off investigating, finds another of the mysterious footprints. Just then, that strange noise rises in the dessert again, and all of them look off wondering what it could be. Distracted, Pat fails to see the giant the creature coming up behind her. Hearing something coming for her, she turns to see a monster-like creature coming after her.

While she flees, Bram charges for her, shooting while Peterson stays with the doctor. After both shoot the creature’s antennae, stopping it, Peterson goes and gets a police machine gun from the car and continues to fire, killing it.

With it dead, the doctor reveals his hunch was true, that the nuclear blast conducted and tested nearly a decade before has mutated and changed a form of desert ant into these monsters. Both Bram and Peterson, knowing very little of the insect, are shocked to learn that there will be far more ants in the future, as they work as a colony and can communicate. It’s then that they hear more sounds of the ants in the dessert.

The next day, General O’Brian and Major Kibbee take the 4 of them over the desert by helicopter (Peterson and Medford in one, Pat and Bram in another) to search for the nest. After a rather humorous scene of Dr. Medford struggling with the technology of radio equipment with Peterson, Bram and Pat discover a large mound with a huge hole in it. There, they see an ant carrying a rib cage out and dumping it with a pile of other bones outside, discovering the whereabouts of their missing persons.

Back at base, they discuss what it is they have to do now. O’Brian wants to attack quickly, but Dr. Medford insists a more delicate means must be used. After showing a simple map of an ant structure and how they work, he convinces them of a more solid plan. They decide to fire flame bazooka rounds at the dome to make it so hot that the ants will be forced to go deep underground. They’ll then drop cyanide gas in and kill them off. Finally, with much reluctance, they’ll go inside the nest to see if the ants are all dead.

After setting the dome ablaze and dropping in the gas, they prepare to go down into the nest. After an argument on sexism between Bram and Pat, he agrees to let her go with him and Peterson.

Once in, they find only a few left alive and easily kill them, then they find their way to the nest. Despite seeing them all dead, Pat is concerned over the sight of some very large egg shells and no different ants to match them. After taking some pictures, she orders the whole chamber burned.

On top of the mound, Dr. Medford and Pat look over the pictures and are worried about what they see. They then inform the others that they were too late in attacking the nest and that two queen ants, accompanied by male ants for mating, have escaped the nest and are now God knows where, mating and creating more nests.

Back at Washington, Medford starts a rather educational film on normal ant life to show some top military brass and government men what they’re up against. They learn about the ants strength, reproduction, social structure and most of all, there ability to make war (something only man has ever done besides them). It’s then that Medford warns that if they don’t find the two queens soon and stop them from making more queens and mates, the human race itself could, and most likely will, be extinct in just over a year.

Getting the warning, a new HQ is started up in Washington with a radio room that’s listening in for any news that can benefit them (kidnappings, aliens or monster sightings, sugar theft, esc). After getting a lead, Pat and Bram head to Texas to check on a supposed sighting of UFOs. The man there (locked away in a mental hospital) describes why he crashed his plane, dodging 3 UFOs that looked like ants heading West. After talking to him, they tell his doctor that despite being cleared to leave, they want the pilot not to be let out and his story to be kept under wraps.

The way I rate my movies will depend on the following: Scares: Some films will have cheap scares that’ll only make you jump at the most, while others will give you a bit of chills. Blood & Bodies: Some films will have bodies and occasional gore, some more then others. Language: I will offer some films that have swear words, the amount and what words will have an effect on the rating. Nudity: There will be no full nudity in the films I offer. There will occasionally be someone naked, but no breasts, butts or anything will be shown as I feel that’s not for a kid to see until their teen years (and my films will be recommended for kids up to 12 years old at most). So now that you know the criteria I’ll use for rating the movies, I’ll explain the rating system: 6 & 7 years old: This is the youngest ages I’ll recommend movies for. These films will usually be either meant for a kid or so cheesy and/or lame that you’ll get just as much of a hoot as they will. Usually there will not be any language, little to no blood and bodies, no nudity at all and simple scares. 8 & 9 years old: These films will be darker and less cheesy that the kind recommended above. They will usually consist of older films that were in their days the "True Scary" films. These films will still have no nudity and very brief language, but will have an increase of blood and bodies. 10 & 11 years old: These films will again increase in the themes from the last rating scheme. They will be a little more modern films as well. They will have more blood and bodies, more scary scenes, a little more use of language, and a very little bit of skin, but no nudity. 12+ years old: These films will be the top rating. The will be films that are damn close to our modern genre of horror. They will have traditional scary scenes, some amount of blood and bodies, more language and more skin.

The Navy announces the next day that they bombed the Viking and recovered at least two sailors who survived and that one of the queens is now dead. It’s then that Pat announces that they have a lead on the second queen, and that Peterson and Bram were investigating it. The lead is a rumor of a several ton sugar theft out in Los Angeles.

As they interview the man responsible for the box car that the sugar was stolen from (ripped out like in the past sites), they then find something more serious, a man who was recently found dead after he crashed his car and has received scars far worse then what the crash could have done to him. His devastated wife confirms this and, to make matters worse, reports that their two sons who were with him that day are missing.

As they interview people who where arrested around the area where the man crashed, they finally find a lead to help them. A local drunk, a regular to the drunk ward at the Hospital, claims to have spotted giant ants out by the river from his hospital bed. Bram and Peterson then deduces that the amount of time him being there works with the timeframe of when the queen left the original nest.

Out exploring the giant manholes that lead the sewer water to the river, they discover clues to make it all fit: a model plane a kid would play with and tire tracks that match the dead man’s new tires. Most of all, they find another giant ant footprint. Unfortunately, a policeman points out that there are several hundred miles of giant sewage pipes like this one running under the City.

Declaring a state of Emergency, the military closes down the City of Los Angeles at 6 PM and prepares to infiltrate the sewers. Despite some wanting to just go in and kill them all, Bram, Peterson and Medford all insist on a slower assault so the missing kids can be found and to confirm whether any new queens have been birthed and released.

As they slowly enter the sewers vehicle by vehicle, Peterson stops them as he thinks he hears something. After searching a small manhole pipe, he finds out that the two boys are alive, much to the pleasure of the mother outside listening in. He also finds that they’re in an unfinished part of the sewers and that it smells like the nest back in New Mexico.

Giving the order to charge in, the military heads for the sewage area while Peterson goes in to save the kids from attacking ants. He manages to kill them with a flame thrower and get the kids back in to the pipe to escape, but getting them in has delayed him as another ant closes in and he fails to get up in time. The ant gets him in its pinchers grips and attacks him. Bram manages to show up and shoot it dead, but not soon enough to save Peterson.

The battle then increases as the military fights out the ants. As Bram leads them in, a cave in suddenly traps him on one side with the troops on the other. He then realises that he is trapped with the last remaining ants and must hide as they try to find and kill him.

He barely escapes as the soldiers break through and kill them. Heading back, Medford finds that new queen ants have hatched, but that the military has managed to get there in time as none have left the nest yet. The military uses the flamethrowers to kill them. But as the threat is finally ended, Pat and Bram ponder on what could possibly be created from other nuclear tests as Medford warns that they can’t know until it happens, and that this could only be the beginning.

Little Facts

This film might seem kind of cheesy at times with the SFX, but for the time they were truly state of the art. The model ants where impressive as they used real giant scale machines for some of them and others were small models used for green screen shots.

This wasn’t originally going to be a black and white film. It was supposed to be color in 3-D. I’m guessing the test footage didn’t work to well though as they changed it in the early stages.

This film features two future icons as well. The scene in the radio room has a young Leonard Nimoy and the man locked away in the sanitarium, Fess Parker, would go on to be Davy Crockett in Disney’s classic film (Walt Disney actually saw this film to cast him).

The Rating

Recommended for ages 8 & 9

Reasons: This film features scenes of blood as well as a dead body, along with a few people being attacked by the ants. However, as said, this film is in black and white so you can’t see the red blood and the body scene is brief. There are also some rather dark scenes that’ll give a few spine chills, like the scene when they go into the queen’s nest.

So ends my first article of Scaries for Kiddies. I hope you enjoyed it and that you have a kid to enjoy it with as well. Next time, we see the Devil do battle with unicorns, fairies, Ferris Bueller's girlfriend and Tom Cruise.


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