While it's true that "Phase IV" is rather slow moving in spots, and that the human characters are ciphers with no real depth to speak of, "Phase IV" is a nice sally at an experimental science fiction film that emphasizes mood and dread over action and character development.

I had the good fortune to watch this on a really large flat screen TV, and the amazing insect photography (major kudos to the editor who managed to integrate it so completely into the story!) and dissonant synthesizer laden sound track come through nicely with good viewing equipment - they add the proper utterly alien and inhuman feel to the movie and turn something pretty good into something really creep and spooky.

Although the characters are admittedly pretty flat, that's undoubtedly on purpose. "Phase IV" is all about the subjection of the human characters to the overwhelming power of a hive mind where "personality" is besides the point. Even so, Nigel Davenport brings the good stuff to his role as the biologist trying to contain the ants, and you both know everything you need to know and everything you'll ever know about in the first five minutes...without ever knowing him at all.

An ambiguous and otherworldly/mystical ending might not sit well with a lot of viewers who like their science fiction movies to wrap things up by the end. And, OK, the goofy little montage at the end with the mathematician and the gamin doesn't really match the quality of the hallucinatory insect footage that preceded it.

Still, Saul Bass knew how to present an otherworldly, truly alien experience, but he was probably just too far ahead of his time.

A classic of sorts.

I have a default category for movies like this that says - someone, somewhere at some time must have thought this was a good idea for a picture. Paying fairly close attention, I really didn't get the point of this story if there was one, and even by reading the reviews of other folks on this board I'm not getting a clear picture of what this was supposed to be about. There's a pretty good post left by user 'Dr. Wily' in the reviews section, but even after his astute analysis, he comes up with the same conclusion - which is, try to come up with your own. The movie makes as much sense as an old joke it reminded me of as I considered the subject matter. Ready? Say 'dead ant' ten times real fast....

Hi-yo Silver, away!!!!

Saul Bass is better known as a title designer rather than a film director on his own right. This film provides the answer why. If you are afraid of ants then stay away.

The film with its set design wants to reflect the symbolism of 2001: A Space Odyssey with its giant towers and action inside a dome like laboratory somewhere in the Arizona desert.

A colony of ants have somehow gained heightened intelligence and are manipulating events so local people leave the area. Two scientists remain examining and conducting experiments on the ants and rescue a young woman wandering around. However the ants are using their collective intelligence to torment and play mind games on the people.

I can see that this film has a cultish following. Not a giant ant or a man in a rubber costume in sight. It wants to be enigmatic and perplexing, it suddenly ends leaving you puzzled.

I found the whole thing dull, poorly acted with Nigel Davenport and Michael Murphy desperately trying to rescue this mess of a film.