Dead Ant starts off with a hot chick having a peyote trip where she strips off all her clothes and runs naked through the desert while being chased by a giant CGI ant. As far as ways to open up a picture go, I’d say this ranks right up there with the best.
Michael (Twin Peaks) Horse is a Native American medicine man/drug dealer who sells a powerful brand of peyote to an over the hill rock band called Sonic Grave who are heading into the desert to play a low rent Coachella type concert. He tells them if they don’t disturb the land, they will have a good trip. Things immediately go wrong when the bass player (Sean Astin) pisses on an ant while tripping balls, which causes the ants to grow to enormous size and come after the group.
Dead Ant has a strange but endearing cast. In addition to Horse and Astin we have Jake Busey as the lead singer of the washed-up hair metal band, Tom Arnold as the band’s loudmouth manager, and Sydney Sweeney as a sexy groupie who wears a skimpy bikini the whole movie. It’s an odd mix of talent, but everyone doesn’t take things too seriously (neither should you) and they seem to be having fun (you probably will too).
I mean the premise is just weird enough to work. It’s definitely a different way to do a killer animal movie, that’s for sure. Usually in these things, it’s toxic waste or a hole in the ozone layer or some shit that causes the animals to mutate. I don’t think we’ve seen one where the insects become killers when the white man fucks around with nature while high on Native American peyote.
My biggest gripe was that the CGI effects are pretty lousy. The claustrophobic setting (much of the film takes place in a cramped camper) doesn’t help either. Still, the pace is rather zippy, and the film more or less skates by on oddball vibes alone.
AKA: Dead Ant: Monsters vs. Metal. AKA: Giant Killer Ants.
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