A hotel is being overrun by toxic killer Ants!
The film begins with a construction workers near a lakeview hotel being accidently buried with dirt, one of which was screaming to "get the ants off of me". We then meet a few characters in the hotel including the owner and her daughter Valerie. She is trying to convince her mother to sell the hotel as her health is declining in old age.
Most of the movie is spent meeting the guests of the hotel and some staff members. They include a newly divorced mother and her son, a young lifeguard who takes in a beautiful young woman to stay with him in one of the suites, and two business people trying to buy the hotel from the aging owner. Eventually, we discover that the ants are toxic and have been dug up by the construction team just outside the hotel. Once they attack the remaining guests at the hotel, it will be a fight to the death to escape the place before the ants kill them all.
Ants is a pretty decent made-for TV horror movie from the late 70's. It's hard to be scared or intimidated by ants of all insects, but this movie does it best to make the viewer feel uncomfortable when they are on screen. We get tons of ants attacking the staff at the hotel, construction workers outside, and varuous guests.
The movie plays off more like a drama/soap opera or one of those disaster/escape movies like The Towering Inferno instead of a terrifying horror movie. We get some really good actors in this one, with Suzanne Somers leading the charge in a very minor role (sadly). Lynda Day George plays our lead heroine and does it very well.
Overall, Ants! is an average addition to the "killer insect" subgenre. It isn't scary at all to me anyways because ants don't freak me out the way spiders or even cockroaches do. I'd check it out once if you have interest, but it isn't one of the best made for TV films made from that era.
5/10
The film begins with a construction workers near a lakeview hotel being accidently buried with dirt, one of which was screaming to "get the ants off of me". We then meet a few characters in the hotel including the owner and her daughter Valerie. She is trying to convince her mother to sell the hotel as her health is declining in old age.
Most of the movie is spent meeting the guests of the hotel and some staff members. They include a newly divorced mother and her son, a young lifeguard who takes in a beautiful young woman to stay with him in one of the suites, and two business people trying to buy the hotel from the aging owner. Eventually, we discover that the ants are toxic and have been dug up by the construction team just outside the hotel. Once they attack the remaining guests at the hotel, it will be a fight to the death to escape the place before the ants kill them all.
Ants is a pretty decent made-for TV horror movie from the late 70's. It's hard to be scared or intimidated by ants of all insects, but this movie does it best to make the viewer feel uncomfortable when they are on screen. We get tons of ants attacking the staff at the hotel, construction workers outside, and varuous guests.
The movie plays off more like a drama/soap opera or one of those disaster/escape movies like The Towering Inferno instead of a terrifying horror movie. We get some really good actors in this one, with Suzanne Somers leading the charge in a very minor role (sadly). Lynda Day George plays our lead heroine and does it very well.
Overall, Ants! is an average addition to the "killer insect" subgenre. It isn't scary at all to me anyways because ants don't freak me out the way spiders or even cockroaches do. I'd check it out once if you have interest, but it isn't one of the best made for TV films made from that era.
5/10