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

Them was the best giant bug movie. It was about giant ants and started a horde of pathetic clones that followed it, but none have even come close to matching this movie's effectiveness.

Atomic testing in New Mexico that went on in 1945 creates a horde of giant ants. It is up to a group of scientists, a police officer, and the military to stop these creatures from spreading throughout the USA and killing off the human race.

This movie is not only a horror movie, but it also makes a point about the dangers of atomic testing. Much like Japan's Godzilla, Them finds nothing good in radiation testing or atomic bombs. There is even a monologue at the end of the movie which explains that things have changed now that we have entered the Atomic age.

James Whitmore, James Arness, Joan Weldon, and Edmund Gwenn give good performances as the heroes who are out to save mankind, along with the U.S. military police. The pacing was rather good as well, slowing down when things need to be explained, and then picking up when the giant ants are on screen.

Though the special effects seem cheesy by todays standards, I thought they were rather effective in this movie and memorable for 1954. This movie definitely looks best in black and white because it adds a haunting feeling to the desolation of the desert where the creatures are first found, and it also makes other scenes in the movie seem darker and sinister. Definitely a thumbs up in my opinion.

I think this is a pretty intelligent and better than average sci-fi picture from the 1950s, though not one of the very best. THIS ISLAND EARTH, THE THING, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and many other films of this era are better. To me, this is sort of like a small step down from them--still well worth seeing but not great by any standards. I think the movie is improved, somewhat, by having Edmund Gwenn in the film, as he was an excellent actor and brought some real class to the film.

However, I am about to write some sacrilege here. Although it is a HORRIBLE film, I actually enjoyed watching EMPIRE OF THE ANTS a lot more than THEM! exactly because it was to terrible!! Joan Collins and the rest of the cast do battle with the least realistic ants along with the dumbest plot imaginable. So take your choice--for a good ant film, see THEM! and for a horrible but funny ant film, see EMPIRE OF THE ANTS. Or, see them both.