Films: Empire of the Ants (1977)

Alias: None

Type: Mutant

Location: Forest/Civilized area

Height/Weight: That of average horses.

Affiliation: Neutral, leaning on Evil

Summary: Ants, ants, and more ants. It seems the killer insect's genre cannot get enough of the most successful arthropods around. Then again, if the bees are regal, then ants are Vikings. As in, they will not let violence be a problem to conquering...

History: In typical B-movie fashion, the ants of a non-economically viable island were mutated when some toxic waste got washed up on the beach. In almost no time, the bugs took over any trace of civilization there, with the queen using pheromones to control the humans and the ants into giving her food. Their main source was a sugar factory, and any human caught resisting would be promptly executed.

Notable Kills: Death by ant, now in bug-o-vision!

Final Fate: Eventually, the visiting humans gain the upper hand, burning the queen directly, and blowing up the sugar factory with the ants in it. The island is freed!

Powers/Abilities: The queen produces a special pheromone that makes whoever breathe it in completely subservient to her.

Weakness: Anything conventional.

Scariness Factor: 2.5-An effort was made, but the super-imposed ants are not Bert I. Gordon's best work. The props for close up are also too wobbly and hairy to be intimidating. It looks like someone crossed an ant with a teddy bear, for Heaven's sake. Then again, ants can be pretty hairy close-up, so points for accuracy, we guess?

Trivia: -Ants in real life are no stranger to enslaving their neighbors. Just look at the aptly named Slave-Maker Ants, which steal the young of other ants so that they may toil for their new queen.

-Apparently, those ant props were not the life of the party, as they would end up bumping into and scratching the actors most of the time during production.