A small child is found in a state of shock, walking in the desert. A trailer is ripped apart and there are signs that the inhabitants have been killed. The deaths mount, but Police Sgt. Ben Peterson (James Whitmore) and FBI agent Robert Graham (James Arness) can’t make any sense of it. That’s before Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and his daughter, Dr. Pat Medford (Joan Weldon) show up. They have identified the culprits as giant, mutated ants.
Along with The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), Them! started the American, nuclear-created, giant monster craze. Dozens of films followed these, each doing their best to be carbon copies. None managed. Them! brings us enormous killer ants, and does it with style. It develops suspense and tension (not things you’ll find in The Giant Gila Monster) and combines a touch of humor with its generally serious tone.
Like the movies that copied it, Them! copied its predecessor. The young heroes are a policeman and a FBI agent instead of a scientist and a military officer, and there are multiple monsters instead of one, but the rest is very familiar. Sometimes, repetition works. Both The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Them! are entertaining, and the small changes are enough to keep away deja vu while watching.
While Arness, Whitmore, and Weldon give above average (substantially above) performances for a film in the genre, Sandy Descher is the actress you won’t be able to forget. Nine-years-old at the time, Descher is amazing as a girl who has been shocked into near catatonia. Where do you learn not to blink? When she finally snaps out of it, she switches from freaky to frightening as she screams “Them!” Edmund Gwenn is also wonderful, stealing every scene except when he’s with Descher. Best known as Kris Kringle in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street, here he’s taken over the Cecil Kellaway role from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and is every bit as good. Still, he’ll always be Santa to me, and there’s something odd about Santa pronouncing Biblical prophecies involving the end of days.
The effects are adequate, though not exciting. The ants are too stiff, and whenever one moves, I can’t help thinking that there’s a guy just off camera pushing a half puppet on a wheeled cart. There probably was. Still, there’s a touch of creepiness about the creatures, and they aren’t seen often. This puts more of the weight of the film on the shoulders of the characters than in most giant monster films, but they can carry it. I can’t think of any film in the genre with more engaging characters.
There’s a subplot with two lost children that’s too saccharin, and one two many bold predictions of disaster, but overall, Them! is good, horrifying fun.
It’s unlikely that James Cameron missed Them! since its influence on Aliens is unmistakable. The frightened child, soldiers in cramped corridors, and the flame thrower in the egg chamber are just a few of the blatant similarities.