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Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: May 26th, 2015.
Director: Bert I. Gordon/Bob Claver
Cast: Joan Collins, Norman Lloyd, Christina Applegate, Nancy Priddy
Year: 1977/1981
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The Movies:
Shout! Factory pairs up two fun old AIP monster movies originally releases by MGM and presents them on Blu-ray for the first time.
Empire Of The Ants:
Our first feature is Bert I. Gordon's classic killer ant movie! Like his Food Of The Gods before it, this feature once again uses an H.G. Welles story as its basis. We start off with a mock educational film bit that tells us some interesting facts and what not about… ants. After that? Some nefarious business types wind up allowing some toxic waste to get dumped into the ocean. One of the drums of waste washes ashore a beach in Florida and proves to be a tasty treat for a colony of ants.
Meanwhile, a real estate agent named Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) is giving a tour of the Florida Keys to an eclectic group of what she hopes will wind up as investors. The tour is cut short when one of her associates is found dead. It doesn't take long before Marilyn and her group comes face to face with the killer - a horde of mutated ants! A bunch of them are killed off while the others make their escape by way of Dan Stokely (Robert Lansing) and his hand boat but when they make it back to town to report things to the sheriff, he's not buying any of it. They try to split town but on the way out are nabbed by various townsfolk, now under control of the ants, and brought to… a sugar refinery! While anyone not under the control of the ants make it out alive?
Shot on location in Florida, Empire Of The Ants is an enjoyable creature feature thanks mainly to the ants. A mix of effects handled either with real ants blown up and superimposed green screen style over the other elements or awkwardly moving rubber prosthetic creations, the ants are the real star of the show here, with no disrespect meant to Ms. Collins (who is still quite fetching in this film if not maybe the most enthusiastic participant). Thankfully these ants get a lot of screen time and if Gordon occasionally tosses logic out the window and disregards the source material most monster movie fans won't mind so much, simply because the movie delivers a lot of giant killer ant action.
The ants fight people in swamps. The climb on things. They fight people in boats and climb on more things. The walk down a big ol' Florida dock, one by one. Then they fight people on the mainland… and climb on more things. Yep, the ants do just what you'd want the ants to do, all with varying degrees of believability in the effects department.
It's goofy, but it's a lot of fun.
Jaws Of Satan:
This is one that never actually got a release on DVD so it's definitely been harder to come by but it makes the perfect double feature when paired with the earlier film. The story begins as a train carrying a selection of exotic animals barrels down the tracks. Inside one of the cars is a huge cobra that somehow gets past the lock keeping it caged up and then proceeds to terrifying anyone that it comes into contact with.
Eventually the snake slithers its way into a tiny rural town somewhere in Alabama. Along the way, the cobra is able to somehow control other snakes in the area and before you know it, snakes are all over the place and biting everyone they can! The town doctor, Maggie Sheridan (Gretchen Corbet), notices that the bite marks are leaving rather unusual marks and so she calls in a snake expert she knows named Paul Hendricks (John Korkes). As they try to figure out what's going on, the mayor and a developer behind a new dog track opening up in town go into 'hush mode' to ensure that the news does not get out about their snake problem. Meanwhile, the town priest, Father Tom Farrow (Fritz Weaver), learns about a Satanic curse involving snakes, taking this to mean that the town is damned and that the cobra that started it all has come to bring him to Hell!
An interesting mix of animal attacks and Satanic paranoia, Jaws Of Satan is pretty entertaining stuff. Once it hits its stride, it proves to be well paced and the payoff, with the big finish going into some unexpected directions, definitely make this worth checking out. There's a certain amount of camp value to some of the scenes involving some rather hokey effects work but the movie manages to conjure up a fair bit of atmosphere in a few spots. Much of the credit for this goes to Dean Cundey, best known for a few classic John Carpenter films, as the cinematography is slick and effective as is the lighting. This helps us to look past some questionable performances and effects spots.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Empire Of The Ants is framed at 1.85.1 and Jaws Of Death at 1.78.1, both transfers presented in AVC encoded 1080p high definition widescreen. Aside from some minor specks here and there, both films look quite clean here, no major print damage to note. Detail is nicely upgraded from past DVD editions, both in close up shots and medium/long distance shots too. Some of the matte and effects work in Food looks a bit more artificial here than before, but it's always been there so it's not a big deal. Skin tones look good, colors are reproduced nicely and accurately and there are only a few spots where eagle eyed viewers might notice some minor compression artifacts. Noise reduction and edge enhancement never pop into the equation.
Both movies are given an English language DTS-HD 2.0 mix with optional closed captioning provided, also in English. No problems to note here. While the video upgrade is more noticeable than the audio upgrade both movies feature nicely balanced tracks with clear dialogue. The films' respective scores sound good and both movies are free of any hiss or distortion.
Bert I. Gordon and moderator Kevin Sean Michaels kick off the extras for the first feature with a solid audio commentary that covers pretty much everything that you'd want to know about the making of Empire Of The Ants. There's some dead air here and there but Gordon talks about his working relationship with AIP, the effects, the locations and the cast and crew. It's not the world's most dynamic and invigorating commentary but when Gordon is on he's quite interesting.
Extras for Empire Of The Ants also include a theatrical trailer, a single radio spot, a still gallery, trailers for a few other AIP nature run amuck movies, menus and chapter stops. The only supplements for Jaws Of Satan are a theatrical trailer, menus and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
Shout! Factory offers up two pretty solid 'when animals attack!' style horror pictures from AIP's back catalogue in very nice high definition transfers and with a few decent extras too. This double feature is a kick - if you dig nature run amuck movies, you should consider this one essential.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
