Marabunta - killer ants attack

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Movie
German title Marabunta - killer ants attack
Original title Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1998
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Jim Charleston,
George Manasse
script Linda Palmer,
Wink Roberts
production George Manasse
music Daniel light
camera Don E. FauntLeRoy
cut Jim Cross
occupation

Marabunta - Killer Ants attack (Original title: Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! ) Is an American animal horror film from 1998 , which was produced for FOX TV .

content

When the respected entomologist Dr. When Jim Conrad and his friend, helicopter pilot Bob Hazzard, go on a fishing trip to the remote, valley-lying provincial nest Burly Pines in Alaska , they discover a number of strangely trimmed animal carcasses. Finally, they come across the gnawed skeleton of the native Trent Murdoch. In addition to the local police officers Chief Jeff Croy and Officer Dave Blount, the attractive elementary school teacher Laura Sills also appears at the crime scene. Since neither those present nor the gray wolf, the brother of the deceased, can make sense of Murdoch's death, and the place has recently been hit by inexplicable earthquakes, scientist Jim decides to spend a few more days in Burly Pines for research purposes. When Laura Jim explains that some time ago her elementary school students discovered with the help of a thermocouple in the ground that the ground had warmed up significantly, Jim's suspicion that the marabunta , a South American killer ant species, was responsible for the frightening incidents is confirmed.

Shortly after Jim shares his findings with the Police Chief, more deaths occur, including Officer Blount's younger brother Scott. Chief Croy has seen enough and wants to alert the National Guard immediately. But all phone lines are destroyed by a sudden earthquake. Bob's helicopter has a hole in its petrol tank, and it can't do anything either. Jim warns: If the valley is not evacuated within 24 hours, all residents will be doomed to death by the killer ants that are forming at that moment. He organizes the next steps and lets the police evacuate the residents of Burly Pines, while he and Laura want to destroy the queen's nest, suspected to be in a shipwreck from South America, in order to seriously disrupt the ants' communication system. Armed with a flamethrower and the snake charmer , a legendary little shotgun, Laura and Jim are flown by Bob in his helicopter to a lake with a large shipwreck made of tropical wood. As the two inspect the wood, Bob is killed by some ants while sitting in his helicopter. Meanwhile, Jim and Laura have to defend themselves with their weapons against a carpet of approaching ants. When they realize that this is of no use, they flee from the insects in a canoe.

Back on land, the two discover a small moped and speed to Laura's elementary school. In the chemistry room, Jim brews an effective stink beetle secretion to fight the ants. But even there they are surrounded by the marabunta and do not compete with the overwhelming numbers of ants. Only Chief Croy and his son Chad can save them at the last second. Officer Blount, however, did not make it, he was eaten by the ants. Shortly thereafter, the Gray Wolf blows up the pass that leads out of the valley to prevent the ants from spreading further across the land. The group decides to drive in the opposite direction to the dam, towards which the ant route is now moving. There they decide to get dynamite and also to blow up the dam in order to wipe out the Marabunta completely with a great flood. When Jim lights the fuse at the very last moment before the killer ants can attack him, an outside helicopter saves the group from certain death. The valley is flooded. Jim is convinced that he killed the ants and thus finally averted the danger of marabunta.

What the group cannot know, however, is that some of the killer ants were able to save themselves from the floods and survived ...

criticism

Overall, Marabunta - Killer Ants Attack only received a modest response, which the work also classified as an involuntarily ridiculous trash film of bad design:

"Animal horror film with mediocre special effects that teaches horror even to die-hard genre fans because of its cheap production."

- Lexicon of international film

Other reviews were even less cautious in their negative assessment, with tvspielfilm.de even believing the production was plagiarized:

“Gnawed skeletons deface a backwater in Alaska. Entomologist Jim (Eric Lutes) says that a gigantic colony of ants from South America is now satisfying its cravings in the north. The village sheriff has the place evacuated, while Jim is looking for the queen of the crawling animals ... Ice cold from a Charlton-Heston film from 1954 When the Marabunta threatens copied and thanks to loveless dramaturgy simply ridiculous. "

In addition to the cheap design and the ridiculous dramaturgy , various logical errors in content become clear: Jim and Bob, the moose whose skeleton they find, have been killed by wolves or mountain lions , while the skeleton is obviously stuck with a hunting arrow between the ribs. It is also surprising that helicopter pilot Bob cannot alert the National Guard at first because of a hole in his tank, but shortly afterwards Jim and Laura fly to the shipwreck with the same machine. Furthermore, z. B. the river, which is supposed to connect the lake of Burly Pines with the sea, some dangerous rapids and should hardly be navigable for a wooden freighter of this size.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marabunta - killer ants attack in the IMDb
  2. ↑ Marabunta - killer ants attack. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 30, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ http://www.tvspielfilm.de/kino/filmarchiv/film/marabunta-killerameisen-greifen-an,1301538,ApplicationMovie.html tvspielfilm.de, accessed on February 23, 2016