A made for TV addition to the "Nature Strikes Back" genre that was prevalent at the time, this shows its audience a pretty good time. Lakewood Manor is a lodge in Arizona (although the production actually filmed in Canada) that ends up under siege by a never-ending onslaught of ants that have become toxic and can kill people provided they bite their victims enough times. Robert Foxworth is the grim-faced, take-charge Mike Carr, a construction worker and the hero of the piece; Lynda Day George is his appealing leading lady, and screen legend Myrna Loy plays Lyndas' wheelchair-bound mom.A number of familiar faces get trotted out, disaster-movie style, for this well-directed tale that delivers a reasonable amount of thrills. While ants may not be among the most off-putting members of the insect world, to see so many of them mobilized here, and to see human beings covered with scores of them will ensure nail-biting tension for the more squeamish people in the audience.The characters are largely standard-issue, but fairly engaging just the same. We also get stock individuals like the stubborn dummy (Steve Franken) who doesn't believe Mike about the killer ants theory, and the worthless jerk (Gerald Gordon) who will be out to save his own skin when the going gets rough. That said, there is a very first-rate cast at work here, although Ms. Loy gets precious little to do after a while. Also turning up are Bernie Casey, Barry Van Dyke, Karen Lamm, Anita Gillette, Brian Dennehy, Suzanne Somers, Stacy Keach Sr., and Rene Enriquez.In a way that hearkens back to sci-fi monster movies of the 1950s, the filmmakers (Robert Scheerer directs from a script by Guerdon Trueblood) take the time to educate us as well as entertain us, with some facts shared regarding the nature of ants.Well done overall, with a particularly effective finale.Seven out of 10.

Wow. 1977 was no picnic.A few months following Empire of the Ants, came the TV "thriller" It Happened at Lakewood Manor, or on screen: ants! (Yes, with a lowered-cased 'a' as if that makes it all the more terrifying.) Now, this may or may not have been a trend back then (Made-For-TV movies mimicking the silver screen films), but it's a downright horrid fad of the past few years and Sci-Fi (or Syfy) Channel's the biggest criminal to one of my biggest pet peeves. What started off as a "clever" way to get people to rent their bad movies in the video store when they were expecting the (enormously) bigger budgeted and (ENORMOUSLY) better quality theatrical released film is now just the movie-of-the-week months before the "real" movie hits theatres. (Side note: it actually worked, so kudos to these demon marketers.) These disgusting knock-offs are so bad, so horribly acted (starring D-List actors from decades old sitcoms,) so boring and so low budgeted it's as if it was like the kids on the block trying to recreate Harry Potter from their backyard with a phone video camera. They should be ashamed and I'm not going to even list any examples; you evil Syfy producers know your sins and will eventually pay in dividends.But, I digress. My rant really has nothing to do with ants! as this movie has only a few minor things in common with Empire of the Ants, but enough to include my rage against Syfy. Let's see: they both have killer ants, both ants attack a resort-to-be (ants! has one already, but future plans for a newer casino/resort) and both deviant ants are "getting even" with humans for toxicants in the ground. Only these ants are the right size which to me, makes it more scary than the plastic, cardboard and enlarged ants of Empire of the Ants.Wheelchair-bound owner of the Lakewood Manor resort is fending off both a greedy businessman and nasty and little black ant terrors that are simply angry for being disturbed from where a construction hole is being dug. The little ants have apparently absorbed the toxicants we humans have carelessly dumped and they're using their new superpowers to retaliate for the wake-up call. And they'll either use the conveniently placed pipe that leads into the resort's kitchen or simply march in with, I'm guessing, billions of tiny (and laughably cartoonish) warriors.Throw in a few "I Love the '70s" soap opera dramas and a climax of rescue (and in most cases unintentional hilarity) and you have this harmless "When Animals Attack" movie.And yet, I am rating this slightly hirer than I normally would. It could be, perhaps, I was the same age as one of the ant's victims when I was also personally attacked (not once, but twice) as a child, though under different circumstances, of course. Duh. This boy was digging for gold, or empty recycle glass bottles, in a garbage bin and left it covered in more than just trash. He had the luxury of running into the pool to save himself from the deadly bites of the ants. In real life, back in my home state of New York, I was probably that same age (and size) and playing on a hill in a neighbor's yard that had a tree on it. Before I knew it, I was about 40% covered from head-to-toe with ants and the neighbor had to help me. There was no body of water for me, but thankfully the neighbor helped. The other incident happened when I was a tad bit older, now in Arizona, and I had the luxury to revisit this nightmare, but like most sequels, this one contained much larger ants and improved with the color red. (By the way, for those unfamiliar with ants, that's not good news.) Coincidentally, my second encounter involved my playing in a construction ditch. I honestly don't know how I got out of that one, but I was spared somehow.So, naturally, I do have some fear of the little beasts, and this (obviously) pre-CGI movie really made my skin crawl. These were real ants, for the most part, and all over the actors. How they managed to sit still with (again, obvious) un-poisonous creatures swarming over them is beyond me.Nevertheless, besides some laugh-out-loud incidents in the final act, such as "FLYING" ants – and I'm guess that was supposed to be suspenseful when the onlookers get a 3-D version of what ails our heroes, and the dangling dame in distress, it's 100% pure "When Animals Attack" of the 1970s/1980s. You'll have everything people were dying to see: resort in peril, greedy (and mean) resort owner, beautiful (for the time) women/butch & bearded men, original victim's deaths that take the cast an hour to solve, normal everyday species affected by inconsiderate (to Mother Earth) homosapiens and a grand-scale attack/climax on screaming extras. Seriously, if you're into this sort of thing, like I'm always attracted to, you cannot do wrong here.

Just want to comment on this movie that I know as "Ants". I think I really only like to watch it and more than once because I grew up near this hotel. Despite the fact that IMDb lists the filming location as Vancouver, British Columbia, this movie was actually filmed in the small town of Qualicum Beach, about 60 miles west of Vancouver. Lakewood Manor is in reality the old Qualicum College, a private residential boys's school, converted around the time of this movie to a hotel called the Qualicum College Inn. The water overlooked by the building is not a lake at all, but rather the Strait of Georgia which separates Vancouver Island from the mainland of British Columbia.When I was a kid my friends and I would dig in the hard sandy clay just across the street from the college and make quite substantial caves. We were very foolhardy as these could have collapsed at any time, and of course we never realized that there were killer ants down in the ground!

Construction site unearths an army of toxic ants that engulf the neighbouring hotel. Construction Manager Foxworth and foreman Casey lead the charge to convince the owners of the impending danger, and then save the guests from imminent death.Almost sounds exciting, and while it doesn't quite live up to its premise, a surprisingly good cast and competently handled action sequences contribute to a watchable entry in the "animal attack" film genre.Foxworth plays the hero with macho determination, coming to the rescue of his girlfriend (Day-George) and soon-to-be mother-in-law (Loy) who are trapped in the besieged hotel, along with an assortment of other residents and ring-ins. Suzanne Somers gets star billing despite only being in a minor supporting role, while future star Brian Dennehy chimes in late in the piece as the fire brigade captain who must engineer an escape plan for the trapped victims.Nothing fancy, no expensive special effects, Emmy-award winning performances or memorable dialogue, just the tried and tested disaster film formula, with a new element for excitement. The only real liability, is a somewhat bizarre (and equally absurd) climax ending that might leave the audience a little disappointed.Disbelief aside, "Ants" is a reasonable way to spend an hour-and-a-half, and may leave you hesitant about dismissing the innocuous looking insects, next time they infest your kitchen sink.