Ants! AKA It Happened at Lakewood Manor is a 1977 made for television horror movie. This is another one of those man versus nature films that dominated the seventies along the lines of Frogs, Grizzly, Empire of the Ants, Dogs, Day of the Animals and Long Weekend, among others.

This movie takes place at an old hotel run by Ethel (screen legend Myrna Loy, The Thin Man, The Mask of Fu Manchu) and her daughter Valerie (Lynda Day George, Day of the Animals, Chisum).  Unscrupulous real estate agent Anthony Fleming (Gerald Gordon) and his partner and mistress Gloria (Suzanne Somers from Three’s Company fame) enter the property with the hopes of buying the hotel from Ethel. Meanwhile construction foreman Mike (Robert Foxworth, Prophecy, Airport ‘77) and his men are doing some construction work around the area when they uncover an ant colony and a couple of workers are killed. Once it’s discovered that the ants are biting and killing everyone they encounter, there are suddenly thousands of ants are attacking everyone at and around the hotel, including the infamous scene where Suzanne Somers is covered with ants. These ants are also poisonous, as they have become immune to pesticides and using the poisons that they have absorbed on their would-be victims after biting them, rendering them helpless and killing them! The guests and staff are forced to leave the hotel immediately or they will be a meal for the ants!

I thought Ants! was a fun minor horror with the cast acting frantically to avoid the ants crawling around. They all give professional performances.  I do question some scenes where the cast surprisingly did not see the ants near or even right under their feet. It pays to look down at the ground when you walk! And they could have stepped on a few of the ants along the way! At any rate, this movie had some creepy moments and the thought of having ants crawling on your body is pretty icky. Rumor has it that Suzanne Somers hated the scene with ants crawling on her as she was terrified of them!  

Kino Lorber has released Ants! onto Blu-ray with both the 1.33:1 television version and the 1.85:1 theatrical version. Lucky patrons in Mexico and Canada (the film was shot in British Columbia, Canada) got to see this classic in a movie theater. The image has been given a brand new 2K master for this release and is decent, but not something that will “wow” you. The colors are a bit too bright and yellowish, but overall, it didn’t distract. The color palette is on the warm side, and it is decent and serviceable, but the video quality is not as robust as plenty of other releases that are out there. All things considered, I was happy but not overwhelmed with the picture quality, but I still feel it is a far improvement over the DVD. The image is clean without much in the way of print damages, speckles, and lines. No DNR appears to have been applied.

The English DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track is used for both aspect ratio versions. The audio for Ants! has few aggressive moments, the screams of victims have a fair amount of depth. Dialogue and other noises such as firetrucks and police cars are clear without drop-offs, hissing or other issues. Optional English subtitles are available for this release.

Kino’s Blu-ray of Ants! is stacked with extras including a commentary track by Author/Film Historian Lee Gambin, five separate audio interviews with Actress Barbara Brownell, Actor Barry Van Dyke, Actress Anita Gillette, Actor Moosie Drier and Production Assistant and Daughter of Producer Alan Landsburg, Valerie Landsburg. They all have a lot to say about Ants! and is worth your time to check them all out.

I remember how shocked I was that Ants! was coming to Blu-ray. I am thrilled that it is now available! The number of extras to go with passable audio and video makes this a worthwhile release. I can’t imagine it looking any better than it does now, nor do I see any other label putting this out on Blu-ray and is recommended! Other ant films to check out are Phase IV, Empire of the Ants and Them!

Ants! (It Happened at Lakewood Manor)

Director- Robert Scheerer

Cast-Robert Foxworth, Lynda Day George, Suzanne Somers

Country of Origin- US

Distributor – Kino Lorber

Number of Discs – 1

Reviewed by – David Steigman

Date – 7/17/2022