I agree 'Them!' was a stronger film because for one thing it worked as a detective story. Of course, the poster art gave away the premise but even so, we watched the police and the FBI trying to work out what was actually happening and it worked like an episode of the X Files (a series that it probably inspired.) We did not actually see the ants until we were well into the film and they were effective enough to be shocking. The missing children gave us something to root for and the main characters were likeable. The Deadly Mantis threw all of that away. The only really suspenseful part was when the hero and heroine were at the base and the mantis attacked but it was soon over. I think the budget was soon exhausted. I am sure they intended a lot of scenes of the mantis destroying buildings and wrecking trains. They just had to cut corners. I think they probably got some funding from the government to promote home defence, hence all the radar stuff at the beginning and the bit about citizens watching the skies in their spare time. I suspect quite a bit of horse trading of this kind went on at the time.
Giant bugs are biologically impossible, of course. So this is more fantasy than Science Fiction. The mantis is effective but we see too much of it - especially early on. For real menace, small is scary. The little compys in Jurassic Park II were the scariest concept. The raptors were also scary. But the T Rex was more fun and emerged as a kind of hero. I was never really convinced by the mantis as I couldn't imagine it bothering about us unless it landed in the middle of Manhattan and scooped up people by the hundred. I'm sure that the original writer had that in mind. The hordes of fleeing Eskimos suggests that they intended it to feast on them too - like a real mantis breaking up an anthill. With a bigger budget, this film could have rocked.
As far as remakes are concerned, I think that it would have to be changed quite a bit. People nowadays are sophisticated enough to know that a giant mantis would be crushed under its own weight, would be unable to breathe and would never survive the Arctic cold. I would be more interested in a film based on "Heresies of the Huge God" by Brian Aldiss. Now that really is a monster!
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ulht1
12 years ago
wouldn't hold out hope that most people know what occurs re: square cube law,,,,,,, and sizes.
if it isn't funny enough have someone hit in the face with a fish. Since Thorne Smith likes it ...
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