Saul Bass directs Michael Murphy, Nigel Davenport and Lynne Frederick in this cerebral sci-fi chiller where ants become the dominant species.

If stark imagery is your thing then you may get more out of this than I managed. For the first 15 minutes we hear narrated excerpts of reports over footage of solar flares, ant hives and desert landscapes – it feels like the iconic graphic designer’s only ever movie is going to be some alienating visual tone poem. It never truly settles into a homogeneous rhythm even after this mode is thankfully abandoned and you would struggle to eke out any entertainment from it but the visual horror is often powerful. Close ups of insects ominously swarming and devouring each other alive, scientists unleashing primary coloured pesticides on them plus collateral damage American farmers, while pulsating geometric wounds abound. Like I say this is never a romp and then it ends on a confusing note. The original deleted ending is bootlegged on YouTube and watching it makes the whole slog slightly more worthwhile. We get a revealing Escher / Dali inspired montage of humanity being subjugated then assimilated by our new insect overlords. At least I think that is what happens, it is open to interpretation. Either way the trimmed off finale resembles the stargate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which proves a telling comparison that at least justifies the aims and intention of this disturbing cold fish of a flick.

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