Mr. Big's Ants

 

 (themoviedatabase)

EMPIRE OF THE ANTS-1977-After an introduction that says ants are as smart as men, real estate scammer Marilyn (Joan Collins) takes a bunch of prospective suckers on a yacht piloted by Capt. Stokey (Robert Lansing). Unfortunately, her swampland is overrun by ants who have been contaminated by radioactivity. Group includes John David Carson (THE SAVAGE IS LOOSE (1974), familiar TV actress Jacqueline Scott, Pamela Shoop (later in HALLOWEEN 2 (1981)), Robert Pine (who was a regular on the TV show “Chips” at the time), Irene Tedrow (another familiar TV actress), familiar TV actor Harry Holcombe and Brooke Palance (daughter of Jack). The ants grow very big and start killing. After munching and menacing, the survivors meet a weird couple who call the sheriff (Albert Salmi). It turns a nearby town has been enslaved by the ants and hypnotized by their queen. Some flares and a gasoline truck help put an end to the ant party. 

Who else but director Burt I. Gordon would have made a modern-day movie about giant ants and then say it was based on a novel by HG Wells? (he did the same thing earlier with FOOD OF THE GODS in1965) The SFX aren't so good but the strange turn the story takes is kind of surprising. Salmi was in Mr. B.I.G.'s next film BURNED AT THE STAKE in 1982. Gordon died in 2023 at the age of 100!

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Rip-Off

THE DEVIL WITHIN HER-1975-Former exotic dancer Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) gives birth to a rather large and strong baby (at least that's what the doctor's say; it looks like any normal baby). Weird things happen almost immediately. Baby scratches mommy and later bites their housekeeper. Her Italian husband Geno (Ralph Bates with an accent) hires a nanny but the baby pushes her into a pond and she dies! Lucy reveals a strange story to her girlfriend (Caroline Munro) about the last time she danced and how a dwarf actor "cursed" her ("You will have a baby as big as I am small! A monster!"). She believes her baby is possessed and even sees the dwarf's face in place of her son's. Their doctor (Donald Pleasance) doesn't believe it but when he visits he's decapitated. Dad winds up dead by hanging and his body is stuffed in a drain pipe. Dad's sister, a nun (Elleen Atkins) suspects no good and eventually performs an exorcism but by then everyone is dead! John Steiner is also in it as a Cockney club owner. Much of it doesn't make sense and there's some unintentional humor and it all seems to be inspired by THE EXORCIST, IT'S ALIVE and ROSEMARY'S BABY. 

Director Peter Sasdy did better with previous efforts like TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, COUNTESS DRACULA and HANDS OF THE RIPPER. For some reason it has recently been re-titled SHARON'S BABY.

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