''Phase IV'' is a 1974

science-fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

. The only feature-length film directed by graphic designer and filmmaker

Saul Bass Saul Bass (; May 8, 1920 – April 25, 1996) was an American graphic designer and Oscar-winning filmmaker, best known for his design of motion-picture title sequences, film posters, and corporate logos. During his 40-year career, Bass wor ...

, it stars

Michael Murphy Michael, Mick, or Mike Murphy may refer to: Artists and entertainers * Michael Murphy (actor) (born 1938), American actor * Mike Murphy (musician) (1946–2006), American drummer for the Bee Gees and Chicago * Michael Bryan Murphy, lead singer ...

Nigel Davenport Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor, best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films '' A Man for All Seasons'' and '' Chariots of F ...

and

Lynne Frederick Lynne Frederick (25 July 1954 – 27 April 1994) was an English actress, film producer, and fashion model. In a career spanning ten years, she made over thirty appearances in film and television productions. Known for her classic English rose b ...

. The interiors of the film were shot at

Pinewood Studios Pinewood Studios is a British film and television studio located in the village of Iver Heath, England. It is approximately west of central London. The studio has been the base for many productions over the years from large-scale films to te ...

in England and the exterior locations were shot in Kenya, though the film is set in the Arizona desert in the United States. It was produced by Alced Productions and

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. The film was a

box office flop A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...

and, as a result, this was the only feature film directed by Bass. It has since gained a cult following, due to TV airings beginning in 1975 and also being shown on ''

Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...

'' during the KTMA era. The film was inspired by

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Empire of the Ants "The Empire of the Ants" is a 1905 short story by H. G. Wells about the littleness of humanity and the tenuousness of the dominion ''Homo sapiens'' enjoys on Earth. A 1977 film, '' Empire of the Ants'', was loosely based on Wells' story. Plot ...

". A novelization of the script, written by Barry N. Malzberg, was published as ''Phase IV'' in November 1973.

Plot

After a spectacular and mysterious cosmic event, ants of different species undergo rapid evolution, develop a cross-species hive mind and build seven strange towers with geometrically perfect designs in the Arizona desert. Except for one family, the local human population flees the strangely acting ants. Scientists James R. Lesko and Ernest D. Hubbs set up a computerized lab in a sealed dome located in an area of significant ant activity in Arizona. The

ant colony An ant colony is a population of a single ant species capable to maintain its complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the vario ...

and the scientific team fight each other, though the ants are the more effective aggressors. The narrative uses the scientific team as the main protagonists, but there are also ant protagonists going about their duties in the colony. The ants immunize themselves to the humans' chemical weapons and soon infiltrate their lab. Teams of ants penetrate the computers of the lab and short them out. After Lesko decodes an ant message, Kendra Eldridge (a young woman who has taken refuge with the scientists), becomes convinced that her actions have enraged the ants. Seeking to save the two scientists, she abandons the lab and apparently sacrifices herself. Hubbs and Lesko begin to have different plans for dealing with the ants. While Lesko thinks he can communicate with the ants by means of messages written in mathematics, Hubbs plans to wipe out a hill he believes to be the ants' central hive. Delirious from a venomous ant sting, Hubbs can barely get his boots on, but is determined to attack the hive and kill the ant queen. Instead, Hubbs literally falls into a trap – a deep pit that the ants fill with earth. Helpless to save Hubbs and convinced that the ants will soon move into desert areas where their growth will exceed man's ability to control them, Lesko chooses to follow Hubbs's plan. He sets out to the hive with a canister of insecticide. Descending into the hive, Lesko hunts for the queen, but instead finds Kendra reaching out from under the sand. The two embrace and Lesko realizes that, far from destroying the human race, the ants' plan is to adapt the human race and make them a part of the ants' world. In a voice-over, Lesko states that he and Kendra do not know what plans the ants have, but they are awaiting instructions.

Cast

as Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs *

as James R. Lesko *

as Kendra Eldridge *

Alan Gifford Alan Gifford (born John Lennox; March 11, 1911 – March 20, 1989) was an American-born actor from Taunton, Massachusetts, who worked mainly in the UK, where he died in Blairgowrie, Scotland at age 78. Known best for his role in '' 2001: A ...

as Mr. Eldridge * Robert Henderson as Clete *

Helen Horton Helen Virginia Horton (November 21, 1923 – September 28, 2007) was an American actress. She was born in Chicago and had a brief career in New York. She married Hamish Thomson and lived near London. She worked extensively in British television, ...

as Mildred Eldridge * David Healy as radio announcer (voice, uncredited)

Production

Ken Middleham, the wildlife photographer who shot the insect sequences for ''Phase IV'', also shot the insect sequences for the documentary ''

The Hellstrom Chronicle ''The Hellstrom Chronicle'' is an American film released in 1971 which combines elements of documentary, science fiction, horror and apocalyptic prophecy to present a gripping satirical depiction of the struggle for survival between humans and i ...

''. Both feature extensive use of close-up photography of insects. Computers used by Lesko were not dummy sets of flashing lights, but real-life computers, like the GEC 2050. The idea for ''Phase IV'' was apparently hatched over cocktails in 1971, when

Peter Bart Peter Benton Bart (born July 24, 1932) is an American journalist and film producer, writing a column for ''Deadline Hollywood'' since 2015. He is perhaps best known for his lengthy tenure (1989–2009) as the editor in chief of ''Variety'', an ...

at Paramount had dinner with Raul Radin and asked him what's cooking. Radin responded an ant story, though he actually had nothing. Radin subsequently called Bass, who had a friend who worked with ants and they quickly agreed to work together. During production, Saul Bass was concerned with 20-year-old Lynne Frederick’s figure, since she was playing a 16-year-old. She was forced to wear a specially designed and painful iron-clad corset to bind her breasts (to make her appear younger) throughout production. Bass also attempted to persuade Frederick to restrict her diet to chicken broth and black coffee. According to the book ''Future Tense'', "Bass originally filmed a spectacular, surreal montage lasting four minutes, showing what life would be like on the 'new' Earth, but this was cut by the distributor." The montage was intended to suggest that the two surviving characters were altered by the ants' creation of the next step in evolution for humanity and insects. Shots from the original montage sequence appear in the theatrical trailer, which was likely prepared before the cuts were made to the film. In early 2012, a faded print of the original ending sequence was found in the Saul Bass Collection at the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

in a preview version of the film, which was originally shown to test audiences in 1973. In June 2012, this excerpt was screened to the public in Los Angeles at the

Cinefamily The Cinefamily was a non-profit cinematheque located in West Hollywood, California, at the historic Silent Movie Theatre. The Cinefamily's mission statement was to "reinvigorate the movie-going experience by fostering a spirit of community and a ...

cinematheque following a showing of the theatrical version. The Academy Film Archive was able to find the original film elements for the montage, a set of separation masters, in Paramount Studio's archives. The archive staff recombined the separations, color-timed them for presentation and had them digitally scanned. This recovered montage ending, along with a brand new 35mm print of the theatrical version, premiered at the

Alamo Drafthouse The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the movie, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

in Austin, Texas, as a part of a full day of films by Saul Bass in December 2012, before being shown at select arthouse theaters in other cities. The novelization of Mayo Simon's screenplay, written by Barry N. Malzberg, gives a hint of the final version by Bass, as it uses the uncut version of Simon's script.

Home video

The film was released on VHS by

, the studio that made the movie. A DVD was released by

Legend Films Legend Films is a San Diego-based company founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietar ...

in 2008 and a DVD and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

were released by Olive Films in 2015. All of these releases are barebones versions and do not include any special features, such as the original theatrical trailer or the scenes cut from the original version of the film. The long-rumored alternate ending of the film remained out of distribution until discovered and restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Academy Film Archive. It is now available on iTunes Extras in celebration of the 45th anniversary of the film. In 2020, U.K. video label 101 Films released ''Phase IV'' in a two-disc limited edition Blu-ray set that includes the restored original ending as an extra, along with several short films directed by Bass.

Soundtrack

Brian Gascoigne was the chief composer and

Stomu Yamashta Stomu Yamashta (or Yamash'ta), born , is a Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer. He is best known for pioneering and popularising a fusion of traditional Japanese percussive music with Western progressive rock music in the 1960s and 1 ...

was responsible for the music in the final montage sequence, which was cut from the theatrical release. David Vorhaus and Desmond Briscoe composed the electronic music. Waxwork Records released the soundtrack on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...

in March 2015. It does not include the cut final sequence montage music by Stomu Yamashta. It was the first release of the soundtrack in any format.

Reception

Upon its initial theatrical release, the film had mixed reviews. In a generally positive review,

Jay Cocks John C. "Jay" Cocks Jr. (born January 12, 1944) is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is a graduate of Kenyon College.Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' saw the film as "good, eerie entertainment, with interludes of such haunted visual intensity that it becomes, at its best, a nightmare incarnate". In a negative review, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote that this ecological

monster film A monster movie, monster film, creature feature or giant monster film is a film that focuses on one or more characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall und ...

"didn't get the bugs worked out before release". ''

Time Out London ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

'' wrote that the special effects take priority over the ideas. A. H. Weiler of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote, "For all of its good, scientific and human intentions, 'Phase IV' cries for a Phase V of fuller explanations." The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film 53% based on 19 reviews with an average rating of 5.7/10. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' described it as "designed more than directed, and edited around principles of color and line, rather than around performance or plot". Bill Gibron of

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

rated it 7/10 stars and wrote that "for every hackneyed hole-punch moment there’s an engaging scope enhanced by the film’s visual wonders". David Cornelius of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

rated it 4.5/5 stars and wrote, "Watch it late at night with the lights out, and you'll get plenty freaked." ''Phase IV'' won the 1975 Grand Prix Award at the International Festival of Science Fiction Films in Trieste, Italy. Over time, the film has gained a

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

Legacy

This is the first film to depict a geometric

crop circle A crop circle, crop formation, or corn circle is a pattern created by flattening a crop, usually a cereal. The term was first coined in the early 1980s by Colin Andrews. Crop circles have been described as all falling "within the range of the ...

, 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. The film has been a significant influence on a recent generation of science fiction film directors and other visual media artists. In an interview, the Argentine director Nicolas Goldbart described ''Phase IV'' as having had a profound cinematic influence on him. In his science fiction film '' Phase 7'', ''Phase IV'' is playing on a television in the apartment of the protagonists. The writer/director Panos Cosmatos described ''Phase IV'' as having been a very significant influence on the look and feel of his science fiction film ''

Beyond the Black Rainbow ''Beyond the Black Rainbow'' is a 2010 Canadian science fiction horror film written and directed by Panos Cosmatos in his feature film debut. It stars Michael Rogers and Eva Allan. ''Beyond the Black Rainbow'' was distributed by Mongrel Media ...

''. The music video by Radical Friend for

Yeasayer Yeasayer () was an American experimental rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2006. The band consisted of Chris Keating, Ira Wolf Tuton, and Anand Wilder. They announced their split on December 19, 2019. History Formation The band's thr ...

's 2009 song " Ambling Alp" is an homage to ''Phase IV'' and the video's images are inspired by some of the visual elements of the film.Radical Friend’s Yeasayer "Ambling Alp" video and Phase IV
theinternets.com.au/blog. Retrieved 6-30-12 In January 1989, ''Phase IV'' was featured on one of the very early episodes of ''

''.

References

External links

* * * * ''Mystery Science Theater 3000:'' **
Episode guide: K09- Phase IV
{{Saul Bass 1974 films 1974 horror films 1970s science fiction horror films 1970s science fiction films American science fiction horror films British science fiction horror films Fictional ants Films about insects Films directed by Saul Bass Films shot at Pinewood Studios American natural horror films Films set in Arizona 1970s English-language films 1970s American films 1970s British films