With the small but mighty Ant-Man crawling into cinemas this weekend we thought we'd look at some of our favourite movies to bug out to!
Warning...there are some creepy crawly clips involved!
THE FLY (1986)
A remake that (unusually) equals the original film, David Cronenberg’s sci-fi body shock horror sees scientist Jeff Goldblum accidentally merge his DNA with that of a housefly. Goldblum soon begins to take on the physical and mental characteristics of the bug – and that’s where the fun really starts…
Them! (1954)
A cult classic heavily influenced by concerns over the rise of atomic energy in the 50s, Them! sees giant irradiated ants rampage over New Mexico. Winning an Oscar for its (now understandably dated) special effects, the movie’s influence can be seen today in games like the Fallout series.
Arachnophobia (1990)
Jeff Daniels conquers his fear of all things eight-legged to battle a plague of highly poisonous spiders in small town America. A horror film that refuses to take itself too seriously, it’s still worth a watch over 20 years after release.
A Bug’s Life (1998)
Disney-Pixar’s follow-up to Toy Story features a talented voice cast (Kevin Spacey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus among them) taking on the roles of CGI ants, ladybirds and various other common-or-garden creepy crawlies. Released a mere month after DreamWorks’ Antz, A Bug’s Life is possibly the better of the two – well, it is based heavily on Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, with different bugs recruited to battle off a horde of marauding grasshoppers. Check out this 'bloopers' reel, that perfectly sums up the genius of Pixar!
THE SWARM (1978)
Not Michael Caine’s finest hour, perhaps – but The Swarm’s all star cast and sheer badness have cemented its status as a cult curio. A disaster movie in which a mass of killer bees is the threat, it’s notable not only for its high camp ("Houston on fire. Will history blame me, or the bees?"), but for the fact that actual bees were used in the production – people were even employed to clip off the stingers to save cast and crew from too much discomfort.
