Solemplex
To me, this movie is perfection.
Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Dynamixor
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
AaronCapenBanner
Robert Foxworth plays construction crew foreman Mike Carr, who discovers a horde of poisonous killer ants after two of his men are attacked while working in a pit being dug near an old-fashioned hotel, the Lakewood Manor, which soon thereafter becomes the last refuge of him and a few other people trapped there as the ant army advances upward and onwards....how can they be stopped before they reach the top floor, where they will be trapped? Brian Dennehy and Suzanne Somers costar in this TV movie that remains watchable, with some suspense, but a story that is still quite clichéd and predictable; at least the ants were normal-sized for a change!
thesar-2
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.
Coventry
Another reason to proclaim the 1970's as the coolest decade for horror and cult cinema: those numerous "nature revolting against humanity" flicks! The seventies were plentiful of movies that introduced all sorts of animal species, in various sizes and degree of cuddliness, as relentless killing machines. Insects and arachnids were particularly popular because their ugly appearance automatically scares a lot of people, so the idea of these little critters going on an intentional killing spree would be really petrifying. "Phase IV", from 1974, understood this very well and depicted a simple ant colony as an aggressively revolting army, but "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" can only aspire to be something unsettling, scary or suspenseful. This is actually quite a hilarious movie, even though that definitely wasn't the makers' intention. Sleazy businessman Tony Fleming is heading for Lakewood, a quiet and peaceful holiday resort near the coast, to purchase the cozy Adams' family hotel and turn it into a casino. Right next to the hotel is a construction site and the workers stumble upon billions of hostile ants whose bite became poisonous due to – of course – mankind's continuous use of pesticides. Luckily the ants only attack if they feel threatened. So basically the situation isn't catastrophic at all and there is plenty of time to safely evacuate the hotel guests, but since nobody believes his ant-theory, the alleged "hero" goes bonkers and starts agitating them with his bulldozer for a seemingly endless amount of time! Naturally the seriously upset insects invade the hotel after that, but it's his own entire damn fault! From then onwards the movie gradually becomes more ridiculous with every minute that passes. A handful of people remains trapped inside the hotel with ants closing in on them even though, at least according to, they could easily just walk out and squish hundreds of them underneath their shoes. They're ants, for Christ's sake, not grizzlies! What happens next is the world's worst organized large-scaled rescue operation in history. Here we have the local police force, the fire department and the coast guard collaborating together, but they actually bring lives in danger rather than saving them. I swear, if these people would ever have to fight a really big fire, we would have a severe massacre on our hands. They don't know how to operate rescue ladders and literally blow killer ants upon innocent spectators. If all this isn't embarrassing enough just yet, "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" ends with a serious anti-climax by showing the remaining survivors sitting still for nearly ten minutes. Another lesson learned: you can survive an ant invasion if you remain motionless and breathe through a straw of wallpaper. The film stars Suzanne Somers, who I only know from that dreadful sitcom "Step by Step" in which she was married to Patrick Duffy and had some really hot daughters, in a very suitable role. She's the mistress of the obnoxious businessman and throughout half the film she tries to convince him that she's more than just a blond bimbo with a nice rack. Obviously, all she ever does is behave like a blond bimbo with a nice rack and then she gets eaten by ants! Anyway, as you can tell, "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" isn't a good – or even remotely decent – horror film, but you definitely won't feel bored. The special effects must have been quite cheap in this case. From a bit of a distance, the ants just look like little black spots on the walls and the ceiling. It's strange that the script of this film was penned down by Guerdon Trueblood, who also wrote the other creature features flicks "Tarantula: The Deadly Cargo" and "The Savage Bees" and directed the exploitation classic "The Candy Snatchers". All of these films are numerous times better than this inept and wannabe tense TV-excuse for an eco-horror movie. Generous rating 5 out of 10, but only for laughs and entertainment value.
disdressed12
you know,i didn't think this was all that bad,for this type of movie,(man vs insect,nature,etc)that is.i actually thought there were a few suspenseful moments.the acting wasn't horrible or anything.there are a lot of plot holes for sure,and as per usual in this type of movie,most of the characters are either stupid or do stupid things.the one thing i did like about this movie,compared to others of this genre,is that at least there was a character who was reprehensible and you could really hate.and you get the pleasure of seeing him eventually meet his much deserved end.i also thin the the reason for the ants killing people could be possible.it's at least in the realm of possibility.it's not very likely but you never know.i haven't seen all of the movies in this genre.but it's probably safe to say that none of them will be stellar in terms of quality and logic.still,i enjoyed this one for what it is,a mildly entertaining way to pass 90 minutes or so.i give "it Happened at Lakewood Manor" AKA "Ants" 6/10
