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Ominous monsters of the night are what horror is most famous for. However, there was a period in horror film history when enormous bugs dominated the big screen. Creepy crawlers would give birth to one of the genre's first films, 1954's Them!

Things deteriorate rapidly, posing a national threat, with the focus being on enraged ants determined to establish colonies across the nation. The film would be a huge success, with other films such as 1955's Tarantula and 1957's The Deadly Mantis soon following to keep the genre alive.

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Starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness, Them! would be recognized as one of the most powerfully written and influential science fiction/horror films of the 1950s. The film Them! broke through sci-fi narratives, not because of its daring storytelling, but rather because of the ideas it explores throughout the film. Its special and tangible effects, dramatic pacing, and effective dialogue would be the benchmark against which every sci-fi/horror film would be measured.

THEM 1954

For those who are watching Them! for the first time, viewers can feel and appreciate the harmony between the monsters' gravidity and their sense of scientific realism throughout the entire film. Even endearing characters like Dr. Harold Medford (Edmund Gwenn) and his daughter Dr. Pat (Joan Weldon) deliver convincing performances that all but display this beautiful harmony between fact and fiction to audiences in the 1950s.

Much like other films in its time such as Godzilla would share the same distinct themes, Them! would paint the prophecy of the devastation that nuclear weapons would cause to the world at the time. While Godzilla illustrated their personal nuclear experiences with World War II, Them! would use this approach to explain their intimate experience with nuclear powers that existed internationally. In Them!, the characters decide to dig for strange happenings in the desert. It becomes apparent when they keep digging that the ants are who they are up against. When the ants start to surface, they are not regular-sized, but titanic.

The vast ants' presence is designed to be intimidating in every way, and this is done on purpose. While many of the effects used now are likely cheesy or laughable at best, a grim reality is depicted beneath it all: these ants are capable of anything, and human life is immaterial. However dangerous that is, what makes this a hauntingly more terrifying concept is the large ant's genius ability to organize and expand in numbers. While the first colony has already infiltrated, the real threat begins to sink in when the two queens propagate elsewhere on the planet to make colonies of their own.

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It must have been thrilling at the time to see these animatronics in action, as it would have taken dedication, time, and creative patience to pull something like this off. Throughout the film, Them! makes a convincing case for rooting for the humans, but as terrifying as the ants are, Them! makes the case, albeit subtly, that they are not to blame for what they do. They must establish colonies to survive in the world. People kill ants every day, and the price they pay appears insignificant to many. This time, the shoe is on the other foot in this film, where size and power are everything in this war.

While Them! is a fantastically intense sci-fi horror classic in its own right, it deftly breaks the rules a little to artistically depict something deeper in its message. The nuclear era. One that, in the years following the Cold War, struck dangerously close to home and still has an emotional impact on us now.

While the original is still regarded as one of the most potent and impactful films of the era, Michael Giacchino, famously known for scoring Pixar's most praiseworthy motion pictures, The Batman, and Marvel's Werewolf by Night, is making his screen debut for the adaptation. "There’s always a movie in your mind that never leaves your head," he would tell Deadline. "For me, that’s Them! It wasn’t until much later in life until I learned what it was about—the nuclear age."

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Giacchino would also go on to comment, "What I love about Them! is exactly what it’s called: Them! It’s about the other, the unknown, which one refuses or can’t understand. The current version of Them! is about immigration, and to tell a story about the subject through a lens of this insane science fiction monster movie." This is only teasing early visions of the film's treatment, but it's exciting to hear nonetheless.

Giacchino, as a music composer, has worked on countless number of projects in the industry that are nothing short of jaw-dropping and inspiring. While working with Marvel and Pixar are just small credits to his budding success, Giacchino has also had some experience working in the director's chair for Monster Chair, an episode of 2019's Star Trek: Short Treks and Marvel's Werewolf by Night. While this will be the composer's first experience directing a film, his illustrious career gives credence to the belief that this will be a modern sci-fi horror experience we won't forget.

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