Formicula
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Formicula |
| Original title | Them! |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1954 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gordon Douglas |
| script |
Ted Sherdeman Russell Hughes |
| production | David Weisbart |
| music | Bronislau caper |
| camera | Sid Hickox |
| cut | Thomas Reilly |
| occupation | |
| |
Formicula (Original title: ! Them ) is an American SciFi - horror film in black and white from the year 1954 with James Whitmore , James Arness and Edmund Gwenn in the lead roles.
In 1955 the film was nominated for an Oscar in the category " Best Visual Effects " .
action
In the New Mexico desert , the police discover a girl who is in shock. A short time later, the police found the body of the owner of a general store. She is cruelly mutilated, the shop is destroyed, as is the girl's family trailer . Since the police are puzzled, they call in some scientists. For the biologist Dr. Medford soon realizes that the alleged murder was committed by ants , because the dead are full of formic acid .
It quickly becomes clear that these cannot be ordinary ants. More people disappear in the area. The FBI , which has since been called in, confirms that all incidents occurred on a former test site for nuclear weapons . From further evidence, the scientists conclude that it must be giant ants that have been mutated by radiation and are ultimately found. The skeletons of the disappeared people can also be found near the corresponding ant nest, which is also found. With the help of the army, the nest of the ants, which can reach a size of up to 3.5 m, is fumigated with cyangas. However, two hatched queens can escape shortly beforehand. These have to be found before they can found new states.
A feverish search is being carried out across the country. The first ant colony is found in a ship, but where it is destroyed before it can fully develop. The second colony is soon in the sewers of Los Angeles found. This last monstrous ant den is attacked by the National Guard with the help of machine guns , bombs and flamethrowers because cyangas cannot be used in the Los Angeles area. The ants are killed, including the queen and later any other queens that have hatched, before they can leave the nest, which is also destroyed.
After defeating the ants, all concerned are concerned about the surprises that may await them, given the fact that many nuclear tests have already been carried out around the world.
Background and reception
The world premiere took place on June 16, 1954 in New York City . The black and white film was shown for the first time in German cinemas on September 15, 1960. The film first ran on TV on June 22, 1974 on ARD .
Formicula was the first of the so-called " bug movies ", in which the monsters mutated or were otherwise beaten out of the kind insects or arachnids that turned against humanity. As the first American monster film , Formicula offers all set pieces of the genre . It was the direct forerunner of various films in which giant mutant animals attack people, such as Tarantula, and thus indirectly groundbreaking for similar films that came into theaters in the 1970s .
The theatrical version was FSK 16, meanwhile Formicula has been released for ages 12 and over. The young Leonard Nimoy has a small, uncredited role as Air Force Sergeant (his text at minute 52: “These Texans - they always have to exaggerate, it's just hard to believe. […] Defense circus. What else? State secret! ").
The film later served as a template for the computer game It Came from the Desert by Cinemaware , for the quest Formicula! (English Them! ) in the game Fallout 3 and for the hidden It came from Red Alert campaign in Red Alert : Counterattack .
Reviews
“ Perhaps the most typical of all science fiction films of the 50s ”, because it followed the guiding patterns in form and subject matter that were “decisive for the paranoia cinema of that decade ”. The main themes were the fear of the incalculable risks of nuclear energy on the one hand, and the fear of a 'communist infiltration' into US society on the other. ' The ant as an underground, state-building insect is the perfect symbol of the' red danger 'that America believed itself exposed to during the Cold War. '- " And if it weren't for a black and white film, the ants might have been colored red. "
“ The military will sort it out, one is tempted to say. […] After all, we have the leather necks and the GSG 9. A nice consolation for those who have just been nibbled on by a giant cockroach. Nevertheless, Formicula is an extremely exciting monster film, even if the director and screenwriter could not agree on a hero and the strip is teeming with cliché figures. "
"The first example of the American monster film, which already shows the typical characteristics of the genre - including playing with thoughts and fears that lie dormant in the audience's subconscious."
literature
- Ronald M. Hahn, Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to 1983. Original edition, Heyne, Munich 1983 (Heyne-Buch; 01/7236), ISBN 3-453-01901-6 .
Web links
- Formicula in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Formicula in the online film database
- Formicula on bmovies.de (information, posters and posters)
Individual evidence
- ^ Giant Ants - Eva Database
- ^ Film genres: Science Fiction / Ed. By Thomas Koebner . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003 (Universal-Bibliothek; 18401), ISBN 3-15-018401-0 , pp. 89-93.
- ^ Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexicon of Science Fiction Films. 720 films from 1902 to 1983. Original edition, Heyne, Munich 1983 (Heyne-Buch; 01/7236), ISBN 3-453-01901-6 , p. 169.
- ^ Formicula. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .