Phase I — An event in space prompts predictions of doom.  The effect is most profound on the insects.  Dr. Hubbs, a biologist, notices that ants of different species are meeting, communicating, cooperating, making decisions, which is unheard of.

Then we get a couple of minutes of nothing but ants crawling around.  And ya know what — it’s pretty good. Different species, drones, queens, babies, all coming together like a subterranean Diversity Fair.

Dr. Hubbs also notices the disappearance of natural ant predators such as the mantises, millipedes, beetles and spiders.  We understand why when we witness a take-down of a spider by a swarm of ants.  Obviously, Hubbs predicts a huge increase in the number of ants.  He proposes a government program to study the problem.  For once, I agree.

Hubbs recruits another scientist — James Lesko — to examine an area in Arizona where strange monoliths have arisen.  Then they go to a grassy field where sheep have been killed by insects. They talk to the last farmer in the area who is creating a gasoline moat which he will set on fire if the ants get too close.

Phase II — A facility has been constructed.  After a couple of weeks of no activity from the ants, Hubbs blows up a few monoliths.  This gets the ants moving and they attack the farmer’s horse and then the house.  The farmer lights his gas moat, shoots the horse, then they flee the farm, ending up at the facility.  Sadly, they are killed by a deluge of yellow insecticide the scientists disburse after the ants disrupt their power.  Except for the daughter Kendra who managed to find shelter through a cellar door — to the cellar of this pre-fab metal shack in the desert, I guess.  The ants also manage to blow up the scientist’s truck.

The next day, after the ants adapt to the yellow poison, they build some sort of reflective surface to reflect the sun’s rays at the facility to raise the temperature.  Lesko tries to call for help, but ants in the radio have shorted it out.

Hubbs turns up the air conditioner, and Lesko creates a high-pitched noise which crumbles the mounts.  Unfortunately, the ants are way ahead of them and chew through the wiring in the air conditioning unit.

Phase III — On a monitor, they see a mouse get swarmed by ants and stripped to the bone.  They begin searching for the queen.  For some reason, Kendra goes outside with no shoes and is bitten.  Then Hubbs goes out with no shoes to kill the queen, but falls into a pit and is swarmed by the ants.  That leaves Lesko to go smoke out the queen.

He goes out to a giant anthill and throws in a canister.  He then slides down into the hole himself, sliding down to the bottom.  Strangely, the bottom of the anthill has a perfectly square entrance into another chamber.  There he sees Kendra rise from the dirt, alive but changed by the ants in ways we do not know.

This is a slowly paced film, but never boring.  There are interesting ideas and a lot of fascinating shots of ants going about their ant business.  I give it 3.5 out of 4 phases.

There is a lost ending posted on YouTube which adds a psychedelic coda to the film.  It combines the the incoherence of the 2001 light show with the dream-like imagery of Spellbound (not the one about the spelling bee).

Post-Post:

• Ironically this was the only movie directed by Saul Bass, who made his name creating distinctive movie credits — and it has no opening credits.
• There is bit-part royalty in this film:  The farmer is played by Alan Gifford who was Gary Lockwood’s father in 2001.  His wife is played by Helen Horton who was the voice of Mother in Alien.
• There was an unrelated movie titled Phase IV released in 2002.  Really, out of all the Phases, you had to pick IV?
• “If ants weighed 40 lbs, we’d all be in chains” — Ron Bennington
• MST3K offered insect repellent advice during their episode of this film: “When you’re out in the woods, you can’t beat Off.”

Contender for Worst Cover Ever.

Title card:  “The following is inspired by true events. In 2013 a collapse at the Brackett Coal Mine left a group of workers trapped nearly six hundred feet underground.  This is what happened . . . beneath the surface.”

That is a strangely specific and verifiable way to begin a horror film.  If there ever was a Brackett Coal Mine collapse, it must have been suppressed by the government because I’m not finding it.

C’mon guys, have the courtesy to lie to us — like Fox Mulder, we want to believe; it’s OK to lie, just don’t rub our faces in it.

The film opens with search and rescue crew breaking through the rocks.  They see blood on the wall, then a survivor.

Flash back to 4 days ago — Samantha Marsh is recording testimonials praising her father George on her phone.  She has escaped the coal town and is now a big shot lawyer in New York.  She confides in one of the locals that she is an environmental lawyer, and by the reaction, she might as well have said she puts rapists and child molesters back on the streets.

At the local bar, after her father’s farewell party, Samantha is tossing back shots with the good ol’ boys.  To prove she has not lost touch with the coal miners, she offers to go subterranean with them the next day (not a sexual euphemism), thereby guaranteeing 1) a cave-in, 2) attack by strange creatures, 3) or both.

The next morning she joins dad and the crew down in the mine.  The mechanical digger hits a rough patch, but the operator presses on, breaking into a cavern.  Cue the predicted cave-in.  Not that that’s a bad thing — it’s pretty much what you come to a mining thriller to see, as long as it is done well.

The effects are not spectacular, but they get the job done.  I had never thought about the effect of the air being compressed in a cave-in, but here it blows a man across the shaft like a rag doll.  Good creative stuff.

The survivors retreat into a rescue pod that can provide fresh air and water for the 72 hours it will take for them be be rescued.  It isn’t long before they hear noise and go outside the pod to see if maybe one of their crew is still alive in the mine.

It is understandable that they would want to help their buddies.  But it seems like they are too quick to go into fear mode — and not fear of additional cave-ins, but of something in the mine.

The story meanders a little as the miners try to survive the lack of oxygen, and the changes that their pals start experiencing.  It is effective, actually giving me chills a number of times.

The performances are generally good with one exception.  The always fun Jeff Fahey (Lost) is good as George, there is a nice assortment of earthy miners, and Joey Kern is good in the Corporal Hicks role. Unfortunately,  Kelly Noonan is no Ellen Ripley.  I just never bought her performance either above ground or below.  Even the look of her character was off-putting.  The braided hair just looked ridiculous on her.  Also, her blindingly white smile was almost comical, especially the contrast after she gets dirtied up with coal dust.

Overall, a nice little thriller, though.

Post-Post:

• Joey Kern also went overboard with the veneers, but it is less jarring than the fluorescent Joe Bidenesque choppers of Kelly Noonan..
• There is apparently some tension between Samantha and her Mom, but is a useless thread that is laid out and serves absolutely no purpose.  It would have been better if her Mom were dead and she had the conflict with her only remaining parent.