King of the Ants

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Strange movie, 2006-07-05
I liked this film for what it is. I'd watch it again, even. But overall it's a bit too strange what happens here. The story is extremly simple, a bit too simple, and gets a bit too bizarre halfway throught. br / br /The good things about this film were the baddies. I still have no explanation why I liked them this much. Even when they're doing awful things to the hero, I sort of wanted them to be my friends... There's something extremly sympathetic and funny about them, maybe because they're still like kids, fooling around, drinking alcohol and act like grown-up kids, even when they begin bashing the hero's head to amnesie. br / br /I don't know still what to think about this film. usually, baddies of this sort build up barrels of hate in the viewer, so that by the end it is like a therapy to watch them pay the bill. I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing that Mister Gordon made us like the hero, even after he's crossed the line of morality, and even like the baddies. They're beyond any morality, both, but very likeable. br / br /SPOILERS AHEAD: The end isn't exactly thrilling, it's actually pretty easy to watch as the baddies don't have a chance and the hero stays hyper cool and distanced to the revenge. There's no fighting, no celebration of violence, he just waits for them to come, hits a hammer into each's belly and lets them enjoy the pain while burning another person. Then he burns the house and the movie is over. I confess: I was waiting for a really disturbingly violent showdown. br / br /About halfway throught the movie, the hero can live in the house of his victim's wife. His death is only a few days in the past and she already lets a complete stranger with an obviously dangerous past live there. Dangerous, because his head is so awfully beaten up after his escape. Talking of which: he gets help from a friend, and regarding the extremly bad state the hero is in, it's just laughable to watch the friend's reaction on a bad joke from the hero, so he throws him out of the car and leaves him on his own, with a head that looks like the one from "THE ELEPHANT MAN". br / br /A cold, violent, illogical movie that plays like a short story. I'd recommend it for a rental.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Slipping into Psychosis, 2006-04-15
ONE HELL OF A MOVIE!!! Not only does it have Mr.Friendly from cheers, but from beginning to end it is nothing short of enthrawling. I cant say that about very many movies either! br / Tortured and lessons learned, watching him in that shed made me question if he was creating lucidity in his own nightmare. The speach at the end that briefly describes the title, is nothing short of horrific........as well as his vengeance. br /Go see or go buy this movie right now.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

The most disturbing scenes I have ever seen!, 2005-08-26
This movie has the sickest scenes I have ever seen in my life. I have watched many disturbing movies, "I Spit on your Grave", "Last House on the Left", "The Night Porter", etc. but those movies pale in comparison to this. The beating scenes are gritty and completey realistic. To be honest I could not watch the whole sequence. It is the torture more than the violence that got to me. The psychological torture of anticipating the beatings through the eyes of the victim (at that moment). The Baldwin brother who was on the TV show Homocide plays a villain br /in this movie and is very convincing as a total piece of garbage. The torture is really bad because it does not occur all at once and is spread out over time so the main character and the viewer have time to recover only to go through it again and again and again. Yikes!!!! If ever a movie should be NC-17 this is it. Tons of blood and gore cant compare to realistic torture sequences. This movie's torture scenes make Resevoir Dogs torture scene look like something from an A-Team episode. Be warned!!!

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Fore!, 2005-07-11
I came into Stuart Gordon's "King of the Ants" expecting some weird blend of science fiction and horror. Just look at the title. Doesn't that scream sci-fi/horror? Considering Gordon's other features almost always reside deep in the well of blood soaked cinema, one could safely assume this picture would cover familiar ground. Here's a guy who has made films like "Re-Animator," "Castle Freak," a remake of "The Pit and the Pendulum," the H.P. Lovecraft adaptations "Dagon" and "From Beyond," and the Christopher Lambert sci-fi vehicle "Fortress." I think it's safe to assume "King of the Ants" should fall within these parameters, right? Boy, was I wrong! The title "King of the Ants" couldn't be more misleading in describing the themes this movie actually covers. There is no king, as far as I can tell. There are no ants, although they would be quite difficult to see unless they were mutant ants that stood fifty feet tall. Instead, Gordon gives us a film adapted from a book by Charlie Higson, a film that deals with a bad deal gone wrong and the subsequent bloody revenge wreaked upon the principals by an unassuming housepainter who was literally in the wrong place at the wrong time. Well, at least Gordon's penchant for blood soaked cinema remains firm with this project. br / br /Sean Crawley (Chris McKenna) is your average young guy just trying to get by as a housepainter when opportunity comes knocking one day in the form of the portly Duke (George Wendt). The two men strike up a friendly rapport while working on a house, and Duke promptly invites his new friend to meet a most important individual. This person is a powerful construction contractor named Ray Mathews (Daniel Baldwin), a beefy thug with a love of golf and a hatred for a certain accountant down at city hall called Eric Gatley (Ron Livingstone). Mathews offers our boy Sean a specific sum of money if he'll simply follow Gatley around town and report back on his movements. It seems that Ray's involved in several shady schemes, schemes meaning kickbacks on projects, and Eric is nosing around in the hope of saving the city some money by sending Mathews to the slammer. Crawley, always on the lookout for a few extra bucks, sees no harm in tailing a suburbanite. He heads over to Gatley's home to start his mission, and can't help but notice that the accountant has an incredibly gorgeous wife. Sean spends some time doing the job and reports back to Mathews. br / br /Then something ominous happens. Ray and Sean have a heart to heart while Mathews liberally gulps firewater. The contractor seems to indicate that something "bad" should happen to Eric Gatley, and that if something "bad" happens, a big payoff might be in the cards for whoever carries out the dirty deed. At least this is how Crawley interprets the conversation. The next day he follows Gatley home and murders the guy in a particularly brutal, bloody manner. Then he turns up seeking payment from Mathews, but Ray expresses anger at what happened. He claims that the authorities are all over him because they think he had Gatley bumped off. Not only does he refuse to hand over the cash, he tells Crawley to get lost. Sean's not the sort of chap to take no for an answer, and his persistent efforts to get what's owed him results in a kidnapping and a series of extraordinarily brutal tortures inflicted upon him by Mathews, Duke, and a few other stooges. Much to their everlasting detriment, Ray and company fail to kill their former flunky. Sean escapes and, with the help of the most unlikeliest of allies, returns to full health with the goal of seeking revenge on his tormentors. The end. br / br /I left a bunch of particulars out in order not to spoil the film, but "King of the Ants" is really as simple as the above summary. Wronged man seeks revenge. That's it in a nutshell. In the hands of the capable Stuart Gordon, however, the movie manages to entertain thanks to a number of exploitative factors. First is the presence of Kari Wuhrer, the brunette B movie actress who plays Eric Gatley's wife Susan here. Through the most unusual of circumstances, she ends up offering help to her husband's murderer. Her role also requires her to do some acrobatics in her birthday suit that this viewer greatly appreciated. Second, Gordon doesn't shy away from violence. We've got a golf club repeatedly hitting a head, pools of blood, a refrigerator used as a murder weapon, and a gory showdown that results in all sorts of ghastly indecencies. "King of the Ants" contains more than enough bloodshed to satiate the avid gorehound. Third, and finally, Gordon isn't above throwing in a few scenes of weirdness just to keep the audience off balance. Check out that hallucination Crawley experiences during his kidnapping. What the heck was that thing all about? Who knows, but it was entertaining and appropriately kooky. br / br /"King of the Ants" is sort of in a category all by itself. It doesn't really fit into the field of horror, and it's not entirely at home in the standard revenge flick genre, either. If you like horror and you like revenge shoot 'em ups, however, you'll probably enjoy Gordon's movie. I know I did; I would definitely watch this one again. As for the DVD version of the film, extras abound. We get a trailer, a commentary track with Gordon, Wendt, and McKenna, and a lengthy behind the scenes feature containing interviews with many of the principal players. This short documentary is interesting in a number of ways, such as learning that it was George Wendt who played a big role in bringing this movie to fruition. Give "King of the Ants" a go if you get a chance. It's worth watching. br /

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Very good flick, 2005-05-28
I was shocked as I looked at this movie plenty of times and passed it up, until I read an article in Fangoria #244 article on Stuart Gordon, and decied to rent it. I would say the asking price is to high$15 is more reasonable. This movie does not get boring. The action is good, the plot is good, the acting is actually very good. this movie has already been broken down so no need for me to do so. Overall if you are looking for a good movie that will keep you awake and interested check out "King of the Ants", it is a good flick and doubt you will be dissapointed I know I was'nt.