Phase IV (1974)
★★★ — Phase IV (1974)
There is a small, strange corner of 1970s science fiction that belongs entirely to films like Futureworld: productions that took their ideas seriously, worked with modest means, and arrived at something genuinely odd. Phase IV (1974) sits comfortably in that company. A British-American co-production distributed by Paramount Pictures and put together under the Alced and PBR Productions banners, it tells the story of a pair of scientists stationed in an isolated Arizona desert laboratory who find themselves in a slow, methodical confrontation with an ant colony that has, through some unexplained cosmic shift, developed a form of collective intelligence. No invasion fleet, no radiation monster, just insects. The film's tagline, "The day the Earth was turned into a cemetery!", promises considerably more carnage than the finished picture delivers, which is either a disappointment or a relief depending entirely on what you're after.
What makes Phase IV genuinely unusual, even now, is that it is the only feature film directed by Saul Bass. Bass was, by 1974, one of the most recognisable visual artists working in Hollywood, the man responsible for the title sequences of films by Hitchcock, Preminger and Scorsese among others. Polished but unremarkable genre product this is not. His background in graphic design and visual communication is evident in every compositional choice, and the film carries a considered, almost clinical visual language that sets it apart from the creature-feature crowd. The screenplay was written by Mayo Simon. The principal cast is small and largely confined to that single location: Nigel Davenport and Michael Murphy play the two scientists, with Lynne Frederick as a local woman caught up in events, and Alan Gifford and Robert Henderson in supporting roles. It is, by design, a chamber piece of sorts, pitting a handful of humans against an enemy that barely registers them as individuals. For fans of the quieter, more cerebral end of 1970s horror and science fiction, it occupies the same general territory as other films from that era reviewed here, such as A River Called Titas, in the sense that it prioritises mood and patience over incident. Whether that patience pays off is, of course, another question entirely.
The film also arrives with a slightly complicated exhibition history. A longer alternate ending was prepared but not included in the original theatrical release, and some later cuts have restored it, meaning that depending on which version you encounter, the film lands in a rather different place. That curiosity alone has kept Phase IV in conversation among genre enthusiasts for decades, the kind of film that attracts devoted defenders and equally firm detractors, with not much middle ground. Horror completists who have worked through films like Moshari will find the creature-feature bones familiar enough, even if the flesh Bass has put on them is something else altogether.
Phase IV (1974) is a curious relic of 1970s sci-fi. A B-movie with A-movie ambitions that never fully gels, but lingers in the mind nonetheless. Directed by legendary title-sequence designer Saul Bass (in his only feature film), it imagines a chilling premise: ants evolve collective intelligence overnight and begin methodically dismantling human civilization. No explosions, no bug-eyed monsters, just quiet, geometric precision as the insects build towering crystalline spires and manipulate ecosystems with eerie coordination. Visually, it's often striking. The macro-photography of ants swarming in hypnotic patterns still impresses, and the desert cinematography carries a sun-bleached dread that feels authentically unsettling. The score (a theremin-heavy ambient soundscape) adds to the otherworldly mood. But the human drama falters: two scientists holed up in a geodesic dome deliver stiff dialogue, the pacing drags in stretches, and the infamous alternate ending (restored in some cuts) feels more confusing than profound. An interesting misfire with genuine atmosphere and a brilliantly simple "what if?" concept. Dated, uneven, and never quite as gripping as it should be, but worth a watch for sci-fi completists and anyone who's ever side-eyed an anthill with newfound suspicion.
I keep coming back to the macro-photography whenever I think about this one. Whatever else the film gets wrong, those sequences have a genuine, unsettling beauty to them, and that is not nothing. For me, it sits in that frustrating category of films I am glad exist and would probably not choose to watch again in a hurry. The ambition is real, the execution is patchy, and the whole thing feels like a first feature made by someone who understood images better than story, which, given Bass's career, is about as accurate a description as you could hope for. Sometimes a fascinating misfire tells you more about what cinema can attempt than a competent success ever does. This one attempted quite a lot.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1974 | Watched: 2026-03-17
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Phase IV (1974) on YouTube
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from United Kingdom: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Shinjuku Boys (1995) · The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) · Blue (1993)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)
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