Stevieboy666 Due to some cosmic event ants in the desert become highly intelligent and wage a war on all other inhabitants, including humans. OK, so plot isn't the films strongest point. What makes this film such a classic is the stunning camera work, especially of the ants and other creatures, the use of very vivid colour and a very effective soundtrack. It is a superb movie to watch late at night with the lights out. Having a cast of only three main characters also helps create some great tension, though sadly Lynne Frederick's inability to do a convincing American accent is a negative.

gavin6942 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...

briandoering86 When one hears of a sci-fi film about the massing of hyper-intelligent ants one immediately constructs a mental imagine of something akin to Them! (1954) with its ridiculous, though iconic, monster ants barely functioning well enough to move. However, Phase IV is an entirely different movie…and ant for that matter. Phase IV is nothing short of a sci-fi film for the "thinking man". While being fully aware of the genre's motifs its cinematic approach is that of the art-house – a 70s psychedelic sci-fi trip shrouded in hordes of ants directed by the famous Academy Award winning graphic designer, Saul Bass. For all this, its status in film history is nothing but a tragedy. It's the only feature film directed by Bass and it's almost completely forgotten and certainly isn't readily available for viewing.The story is fairly simple: some undefined cosmic event occurs and augments ant evolution. This particular desert colony ascends to an intelligent collective consciousness making the ants capable of communication and great terror. The colony, per its aggressive expansion, drives out the local human population. A scientific lab is established with our main scientist protagonists. The proceedings eventually lead to a division between the two scientists and some inevitable chaos.The brilliance of this film is the visual component. The cinematography by Dick Bush (not kidding) is in line with the best of the 70s. Furthermore, there are also a lot of interestingly beautiful shots of the colony and ant behavior. Straight away at the start of the film we are presented some truly striking images of the ant intelligence movement for several minutes – no dialog, no humans, just cinematic language.In short one could say, If you're the type of person annoyed by a Space Odyssey or even Blade Runner, then you're the type of person that shouldn't watch Phase IV. However, if you're a total film buff and/or sci-fi nerd I highly recommend you seek out this hard to find, underrated, masterpiece – you will not regret it.Review from Beguiled: http://brianbeguiled.blogspot.com/

Martin Ljus Phase IV is a movie with an interesting premise, with nice imagery and cinematography to boot. It feels somewhat aged, but in a charmingly retro kind of way. Both protagonists were good and played well together. Nigel Davenport especially, with a beard that really stole the scenes. The film became surreal almost, in mixing the shots filmed in studio and Kenya, with those that followed the ants in their colonies and those filmed through their eyes.My main problem with the movie however, and one that destroyed the essence of the premise, was that the ants never felt more than mere ants. This film really needed to establish the ants as highly intelligent and sinister, but unfortunately, accomplished neither. It tried, many times to do this, to no avail. Like an organized attack on a horse and house in the beginning, or the pillar-like colony structures, symbolizing their step out of the ground, their now elevated intelligence and superiority to the humans, the former top of the food chain.Many times it felt almost comical, such as when a woman discovers an ant in an old mans hair in a pickup truck in the beginning, which causes her to burst out in a choir of scream, leading to the truck colliding with an arbitrarily placed metal structure. Though I must admit, there were some scenes with the ants I found great. For example when one ant finds its way into the heart of the humans technological structure and starts to chew its way into the cable only to be eaten by a mantis, who then is attacked by another ant, causing it to slip and short circuit the electronics which ultimately fries it.