Nice work. Beautiful images could be straight out of a graphics arts instruction manual.

I'm getting ready to do a pod cast with www.bmoviecast.com about the film PHASE IV and while doing research I came across your site and I think your visual analysis of the scenes is GREAT!

30 years ago I fell asleep on the couch and woke up half-way through a movie involving real ants collectively attacking a bunch of people in the desert.

I tried googling it but too many entries about ants.

On a chat forum I posted the question "What is the name of this movie with ants?" and someone kindly gave me the name Phase IV with a link to this website which I thought was nothing short of a miracle because this was not a "mainstream" type movie that gets played over and over. As a matter of fact, I had never seen it again since the first time.

This movie has bothered me for 30 years because it was very progressive in its time and my next mission is to see if I can get a copy of it to watch it in its entirety to see whether I still have the same opinion now.

It was quite realistic - not like one of those "attack of the killer tomatoes" type movies and with a bit of imagination you could almost believe it to be possible.

I also agree with other posters in that the photography was fantastic.

Thank you for putting this movie on your website - I may have lived a full life and died without knowing the name of this movie.

I knew about the existence of this movie since i was a kid in the seventies and i never saw it until yesterday that i got the DVD. Boy it was good! There is some kind of movies made around the early 70's that were just intelligent (this one, Silent Running, The Andromeda Strain) A kind of a period that starts with 2001 and finished with Close Encounters. After that, everything went Star Wars.

Yep a great film.
I have it on tape but would like the dvd.
I also have the book by Barry N Malzberg, (ISBN 0 330 23844 2). Which somewhat expands the story and closes with the final words, "And Phase V began". Very open ended a pity a sequel was not made continuing where to book leaves the story.

They just don't make films like this anymore.

Unlike Nic Brown I remember watching it. I would have been 14 and like Nic it stuck in my mind for many years. I finally managed to get a recording of it about 6-7 years ago from Sky Movies.

I was chatting to my potential mother-in-law last week about a film she watched over 30 years ago about ants. She couldn't remember the name and said she'd love to see it again. I finally came across this. It must be this one but she stated that it was a religious film and that one of the ants was a metaphor for Jesus? Is this correct. I'd love to know as I want to grab it for her for xmas without having to ask her about the film herself. Thanks for any help you can provide...

This is one of those films I first saw really late at night on a portable television when I was a kid. Hooray for Channel 4 in the UK. I remember the polished stones that the ants use to overheat the scientists' computer.

I give it massive respect for making the basic premise scary instead of laughable - the concept, with tiny real-life ants menacing people, sounds ridiculous, but it works. It has an "Andromeda Strain" 1970s-style vibe going on, and I'm surprised it didn't have loads of split-screen effects. It feels like one of those things that would benefit from a modern remake, on a modest budget, by someone who cares about the idea. The ending seems a bit tacked-on, though. The stills are excellent.

Oddly it was one of the first films riffed by the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 crew, although I haven't seen the episode.

Much thanks for posting these...I agree that, while the acting in the film itself is very listless and unengaging, the visuals are really awesome...I agree about the look of this film being very similar to a 70's science class film you would have seen on a film projector. The style of this film was very graphic art oriented, I agree. Especially "70's" in style is the last few minutes of the film with the double exposure and the odd symbolic scenes without dialogue. All in all, an interesting film for it's 70's sci fi style, but not necessarily for it's engaging story or acting.

In my opinion, this one's really a good candidate for a remake.