Giant Killer Ants review: Your favourite stars of the eighties and nineties return to the screen in the anarchist ant madness that is Giant Killer Ants.
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Formerly know as Dead Ant, Giant Killer Ants sees a washed-up hair metal band battle nature. Sonic Grave are a band known for their one big power ballad hit, ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’. Desperate to make it big again, they are on their way to music festival, Nochella. Along the way, they decide to stop off at Joshua Tree to take some Peyote and hopefully create a new monster hit song. Unfortunately they fail to listen to the warnings dished out by their Peyote supplie -, be kind to nature or beware it’s wrath, and kill an ant. The ants retaliate and inexplicably become giant (think Eight-Legged Freaks) and bloodthirsty.
While Josh Brolin is off Marvelling it up, his Goonies co-star Sean Astin is here as Art, the hapless band member that starts the war with the ants. Also present are Tom Arnold as the bands over zealous manager, Rhys Coiro (Entourage‘s Billy Walsh) as Slash-inspired guitaist Pager, and Jake Busey at Sonic Grave’s lead singer Merrick. He’s clearly channeling his inner Brett Micheals, somehow managing to even look like the Poison singer in places. It’s a solid b-movie cast, and Giant Killer Ants is definitely a b-movie.
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Giant insects, arachnids and the like, have come back into fashion in recent years. The Sy-Fy channel has been pretty much solely responsible with films such as Lavalantula and Big-Ass Spider, and Giant Killer Ants is certainly trying to tap into that market. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite reach the so bad it’s good heights of the previously mentioned titles. It also has the unenviable job of following fellow giant ant movie It Came From the Desert, a film similar in silliness, but one that also has an entertaining story at its heart. Giant Killer Ants is a little dead on the inside, the story is fractured and confusing, and there’s an over reliance on attempts at humour (Astin’s character is ‘from the Shire’) and an unnecessary amount of female nudity.
Giant Killer Ants could have been a Sy-Fy channel classic, but meanders on the edge of mediocrity. Still worth a watch to see Jake Busey rock out during the film’s climax.
Giant Killer Ants review by Kat Hughes, March 2019.
Giant Killer Ants screens at Frightfest Glasgow. The film will be released under Frightfest Presents on DVD and Digital HD on June 17th.
