Minor Classic - Phase IV

"Ravenous Invaders Controlled by a Terror Out in Space Commanded to Annihilate the World!"

Phase IV is a movie way ahead of its time & a suspense filled film. They're aren't huge special effects or strange alien invaders but a cosmic event happens that alters the genetic make up, intelligence of a native species. In this case ants. 

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 they rescue from the ants to destroy them. But the ants have other ideas.

The film was made during the 1970s & I saw it as part of a double feature when I was 6 years old at a local drive in  Upstate New York & I haven't been the same since! The ideas are way ahead of its time & have as much to do with ecology & as science fiction. 

 What this movie lacks in action, it makes up for in suspense, and suspense you get! 

I've seen this film compared with the 70s Andromeda Strain. 

There's a huge controversy that surrounds this film & the thoughts of the director verses the thoughts of the studio. The director wanted an ending that showed the final evolution of mankind. What he got was 20th Century Fox radically altering the ending of the film which consisted of surreal images presented in a montage.

The novelization of playwright/screenwriter Mayo Simon's screenplay, written by Barry N. Malzberg, gives fans a hint of the final version by Bass as it uses the uncut version of Simon's script.

I read the novel as a kid & let me tell you it scared the crap out of me & since then I haven't looked at wasps or ants in the same light again. 

The film was the work of noted Hollywood Graphics Designer Saul_Bass

Not Coming To A Theater Near You  describes Mr. Bass's Phase IV as "In 1974, he made his only feature length film as a director, the visually splendid though little-known science fiction film Phase IV, a "Quiet, haunting, beautiful, [...] and largely overlooked, science-fiction masterwork".

Recently the film was lampooned on Mystery Science Theater.
Phase IV is the kind of film that gets under your skin & sort of stays in your collective unconscious Dna. 

Phase IV & The OSR 

Phase IV is a perfect example of a Gyaxian ecology at work. The event is perfect for those who want an alien invasion without the tripods or BEMs around. With all of the planar energies zipping around a game like Human Space Empire or the 1001 alternative Earths of the Prime Material Planes there's a good bet that this type of cosmic event changing the native insects has already happened! 

 The entire idea behind such a drastic alteration of the local biological species is a perfect way to trot out those old standbys from the Monster Manual - The Giant Ants or simply use regular ants for that added alien effect. 

 There have been other books or stories that used the theme of heightened intelligence to great effect. 

James Blish's Brainwave comes to mind here. 

The idea of insects with heighten intelligence has creeped a great many people out over the years. A mega dungeon created by Them might really give your players a run for their money.  

The idea of technology might be more on the biological side & a look into the animal kingdom might give some really interesting ideas for "artifacts" of such a society. 

The idea on the far end of the scale would possibly be such insects modifying a human species for its own use. This might be applied to a game such as Empire Of The Petal Throne where a species has done this to an unknown tribe & the adventurers encounter such a society. The very alienness of such a thing could also be used for a fringe colony as well.

There are endless uses for such a movie as this with so many ideas. To quote the film - We knew then, that we were being changed... and made part of their world. We didn't know for what purpose... but we knew, we would be told.