O Mundo em Perigo

"Them" is simply one of the most influential films of all time. This was the first film to deal with our fears of the atomic age and the what if scenario of what our continued testing and use of nuclear arms and how they would affect mother nature. Within the next few years we were bombarded with giant locusts, lizards and mutated humans of all sorts. In fact, this film was the inspiration for "Godzlla" (or "Gojira" as he is known in Japan). In fact, the giant insects in "Rodan" were a directly inspired by "Them". This film also works as a murder mystery as well. In the first half hour, the viewer thinks that he is looking at a whodunnit until the appearance of the giant ants. This film works on so many different levels that it still holds up well nearly fifty years after it was first released.

Them! is the best giant bug movie of the 1950's and one of the best, if not the best monster movie of the decade.

The acting is excellent with good performances from James Whitmore (The Relic) and James Arness (The Thing From Another World). The movie includes haunting desert settings and the giant ants look great. The sounds they make makes the movie even more eerie.

This is 50's monster movie action at its very best.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5.

Boy, if this doesn't creep you out, then you just don't live in the South or Southwest, where you are constantly battling the monsters in this film.

The special effects were superb considering the limitations in 1954.

James Whitmore (Oscar nominations for Give 'em Hell, Harry! and Battleground) and James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon in over 600 episodes of "Gunsmoke" in my formative years, were compelling as they chased the monsters.

They were ably assisted by Edmund Gwenn, who won ans Oscar for playing Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street, and has a nomination for Mister 880. He won Golden Globes for both roles. He really was great here as "The Professor." Great Southwest locations and chilling excitement for a Sci Fi classic.

This is the kind of stuff I grew up on as a kid, watching science fiction and horror movies on TV which had been originally released in the 1940s and 50s. The 1950s was a golden age of science fiction movies, and THEM! was one of the very best. Good casting, dialog, and storyline, and commendable special effects for the time. Although the "atomic-radiation-causing-terrible-mutations" was a standard device in 50s sci fi (THE DEADLY MANTIS, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, and others), it was a workable one, and given that the ants were from the same area of desert where the first atomic blast occurred, it had just enough plausibility. I also like the little touches of humor and banter between characters. There was even a little bit of cheesecake when the young Dr. Medford (Joan Weldon) gets her skirt caught when descended from the plane, revealing a pair of shapely legs. This is one I keep going back to on rainy Saturday afternoons! A gem of its kind.

The marauding ants in "Naked Jungle," advancing across a desert, are matched by the monsters in "Them!" coming out through mists of the white sands of New Mexico after an atomic blast has increased them to giants…

Slowly people start to go missing and the news filters though to the nearest towns that the arid plateau can present a real threat as strange creepy whistles are coming out from that deep desert…

Rather than an atomic movie, the film is about the struggle between humans and species revolt which invade their cities and show their remarkable energy, tenacity and vulnerability…

Just as the Gill Man can only be driven back when he has isolated far from his natural element, the monster ants are all powerful in their own territory and none too easy to destroy outside it…

"Them!" is well acted, frightening, and engaging from start to finish… The cast is pretty damn good, especially James Whitmore as the pretty intelligent cop who found a five year old girl, aimlessly walking through the terrain of the desert— miles from her family's wrecked travel trailer—unresponsive by some catastrophe...

"Them!" is a well-made monster movie, an instant classic nominated for an Oscar for its effects