CREATURE FEATURE: ANTS AND PROPHECY

I mentioned the other day that I was watching TENTACLES on You Tube.

Alas, I had to prize myself away and leave this one under a cloud of ink. Despite a fine vintage of 1977 it was decidedly boring and the incessant Spaghetti Western-style riff got on my wick.

And so I crawled over to another creature feature from December 1977, an ABC TV movie called ANTS. Its also known as It Happened at Lakewood Manor and has nothing to do with Peter Tremayne's pulp novel The Ants, which I also have in my bookshelf.

ANTS the film was a much more watchable affair and I can well imagine it being family viewing that December night long ago in America 1977 when it first waved its antennae. There's no swearing, no gore, no nudity and very little violence ... apart from the ant attacks.

The film stars Houston's Robert Foxworth as the leading man, a serious construction site foreman, who solves the mystery of the ants, goes that extra formic mile and saves the day. I enjoyed the film a lot, particularly his earnest acting in a hard hat.

Foxworth also starred in one of my favourite movies of all time and one I saw with my older Brother in 1979, PROPHECY. 

Not to be confused with the later The Prophecy starring one Chris Walken from 1995, Prophecy is an eco-horror and has at least two serious subjects at its gruesome heart, the plight of indigenous Americans and pollution of the environment by big business.

Robert Foxworth plays a very dedicated Doctor who's asked to undertake an environmental survey of a river in Maine, where native tribes-people are clashing with a huge paper mill and mysteriously falling ill. Enter Katadhin!

Marketed as The Monster Movie, I've seen Prophecy dozens of times and read the film tie-in novel just as many. Like many favourite films its become an old friend and one I never mind having round. Besides, the monster Katadhin is awesome and scared the bejeebus out of me at the flicks when I was 18! I vowed never to attempt to climb a wire mesh fence after seeing it! Ever!

Foxworth went on to star in countless TV series including The Questor Tapes by Gene Roddenberry, which I've never seen [have you?] and did the voice for Ratchet in all the Transformers films.

Have you seen Ants or Prophecy readers?