King of the Ants

King of the Ants (2003) This one is from director Stuart Gordon. Gordon did the cult horror classic ‘Reanimator’ which set the standard for horror movies having over the top violence and gore back in the 80’s. He’s back and he has brought all his blood bags with him. However, this is not your standard horror movie and all the protagonists are normal humans….well…..perhaps normal is not the correct word but you get my drift, no zombies here. This is the story of a somewhat dim but likable schmuck who gets mixed up with some very bad characters.

Several fairly well known actors including George Wendt (Cheers) and Daniel Baldwin populate the flick. The lead, Chris McKenna, does an excellent job of playing an innocent who eventually becomes an out of touch with reality, murderous force. Even though he is a murderer, you are still rooting for him at the end of the movie. Of course after you see what he goes through in this movie, it is difficult not to have some sympathy even for a morally compromised person such as him. The IQ reduction scene is particularly difficult to sit through and the movie takes several unusual turns and has several more stomach churning scenes and blunt trauma injuries. This is a pretty good rent for those with a strong stomach and an eye for the unusual in their movies. The movie is rated R for; several aardvarking scenes, multiple orbulation and bumulation, excessive ultra-violence, gross misuse of a sledgehammer, murderous refrigerators, spinal cord injuries, multiple concussions, a gas attack, a gasoline attack and a game misconduct for unsportsmanlike use of a 3 wood.