A popular sub-genre in the 1950s was the Creature Feature, where large forms of often familiar animals threatened man’s position for dominance of the planet and the top of the food chain. The films didn’t have enough budget and technology to make the creatures believable, but the best ones put the filmmaking tools forward to generate scares, tension and excitement. Them! begins with the mystery of a girl in shock, wandering through the New Mexico desert. She can only shout “Them!”, and the law enforcement investigate to find out what happened to the people and the damaged property. Police, FBI and scientists work together to discover a nest of giant radioactive ants, created by an atomic test in the New Mexico desert.
The first appearance of the ants is genuinely scary because of the tension building up to it. This goes a long way to making you forgiving of the limitations of the effects, which then allows the film to surprise you with some good moments of terror. The above-average cast includes Edmund Gwenn, James Whitmore, James Arness and Fess Parker, and director Gordon Douglas was an expert at surprisingly violent crime films and westerns. Those qualifiers make this as good as a 50s creature feature can be.
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