Lack of good storyline.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Blistering performances.

Desert ants suddenly form a collective intelligence and begin to wage war on the desert inhabitants. It is up to two scientists and a stray girl (Lynne Frederick) they rescue from the ants to destroy them. But the ants have other ideas.The interiors of the film were shot at Pinewood Studios in England and the exterior locations were shot in Kenya, though the film is set in the Arizona desert in the United States. The Kenya aspect is a bit unexpected, but as much of the film is indoors, it could have been anywhere (England or otherwise).This is the first film to depict a geometric crop circle, in this case created by super-intelligent ants. The film predates by two years the first modern reports of crop circles in the United Kingdom, and it has been cited as a possible inspiration or influence on the pranksters who started this phenomenon. Interesting...The one thing about this film I didn't like was the annoying high-pitched segment. Wow, that was awful. But the general concept is great, and I enjoy how some parts are left ambiguous... we need not know every detail about the space phenomenon and the evolution of the ants...

After hearing over the years a number of positive things about this cult movie - such as it being the feature length debut for title designer Saul Bass - I was sure to catch a viewing of it when recently it played on Turner Classic Movies. After actually watching it, though, I was kind of mystified by its strong cult status. My guess is that a lot of its fan base consists of people who indulge in certain narcotics. That's because the movie is filled with admittedly strong visuals, ranging from extremely close up photography of insects to desert landscapes. The look of the movie does have some compelling power. However, it isn't enough to hide the fact that the script has some major weaknesses. The human characters are kind of vague and undefined, and the story has some plot points that are not properly explained. Had these script weaknesses been corrected before filming started, we might have had something here, but as it is, the movie is for the most part just (admittedly) pleasant eye candy.

Nigel Davenport should have knighted for his services to drama. In this film, he plays a scientist out to study ants in the Arizona desert. Michael Murphy is great as the reasonable voice. Lynne Frederick's Kendra is never fully explained in the movie. I caught this film a few times but still have questions about it. The director and cinematographer did an excellent job. It's not your average thriller with cheap shots! In fact, the cast is concise where all the characters serve a purpose. The desert ants have a mind of their own and are more evolved and intelligent! I still don't get how they dominate the humans. We only know the three phases but not the fourth. The ending is never fully explained.

There's a rather slow start to this film with a lengthy and unsettling montage of different ant species working together, a little later there is a narration which explains the establishment of a science research facility to study the unusual activity and the decline in the natural predators of the ant population. There are a couple of interesting scenes of the protagonists from the viewpoint of the ants compound eyes which adds interest and creates an unsettling atmosphere. The music is also effective and unsettling. This is the only film to be directed by the graphic designer Saul Bass and there are one or two moments where the film seems a little disjointed – I suspect the film has been cut or re-edited in some way against the original intention. There is a horrible scene where after a chemical spray procedure against the first ant attack some ants crawl from the hand of a dead man ... a cleverly staged sequence shows the ants gradually become resistant to the first spray of yellow poison by absorbing it ... there is then a suggestion that after a queen ant samples it new ants are born which are fully resistant. The ants are very clever – aside from language they build structures overnight around the research centre which reflect sunlight … the premise of this film sounds absurd but somehow it kind of works … flawed but interesting ... The macro photography is excellent. An enigmatic and irritating ending though.