King of the Ants 2004 Horror Movie Review

I liked this film for what it is. I’d watch it again, even. But overall it’s a bit too strange what happens here. The story is extremly simple, a bit too simple, and gets a bit too bizarre halfway throught.


The good things about this film were the baddies. I still have no explanation why I liked them this much. Even when they’re doing awful things to the hero, I sort of wanted them to be my friends… There’s something extremly sympathetic and funny about them, maybe because they’re still like kids, fooling around, drinking alcohol and act like grown-up kids, even when they begin bashing the hero’s head to amnesie.


I don’t know still what to think about this film. usually, baddies of this sort build up barrels of hate in the viewer, so that by the end it is like a therapy to watch them pay the bill. I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing that Mister Gordon made us like the hero, even after he’s crossed the line of morality, and even like the baddies. They’re beyond any morality, both, but very likeable.


SPOILERS AHEAD: The end isn’t exactly thrilling, it’s actually pretty easy to watch as the baddies don’t have a chance and the hero stays hyper cool and distanced to the revenge. There’s no fighting, no celebration of violence, he just waits for them to come, hits a hammer into each’s belly and lets them enjoy the pain while burning another person. Then he burns the house and the movie is over. I confess: I was waiting for a really disturbingly violent showdown.


About halfway throught the movie, the hero can live in the house of his victim’s wife. His death is only a few days in the past and she already lets a complete stranger with an obviously dangerous past live there. Dangerous, because his head is so awfully beaten up after his escape. Talking of which: he gets help from a friend, and regarding the extremly bad state the hero is in, it’s just laughable to watch the friend’s reaction on a bad joke from the hero, so he throws him out of the car and leaves him on his own, with a head that looks like the one from “THE ELEPHANT MAN”.


A cold, violent, illogical movie that plays like a short story. I’d recommend it for a rental.