Sean Crawley is your avergae guy who works different jobs to make end's meet and one day on a job he meets a man named Duke who gives Sean a proposal and hooks him up with his boss Ray. He's at first hired to spy on a man and so he does, but it doesn't take look before Ray ask him to commit a crime for a sum of money, and when Sean agrees to do the job his life changes drastically.
KING OF THE ANTS is a movie that is very much different from what we are used to when it comes to Stuart Gordon, who's of course most famous for RE-ANIMATOR. First off it's not really a horror film per say but more like a thriller, or rather, a revenge flick. It's brutal, violent and extremely disturbing and hard to watch at times due to all the very realistic scenes of violence that the film's packed with. It's pretty much humorless as well and it's easy to forget that it is a film you're watching as it is not flashy or anything, just very basic and looks very real due to the somewhat shaky handheld camera.
 
Chris McKenna delivers one helluva performance as Sean Crawley, a drifter in life who meets Duke Wayne (George Wendt) and who hooks him up with his boss Ray Mathews (Daniel Baldwin) and is offered a job to spy on a guy. Sean takes the job and starts following the guy around and some days go by until one night when Ray asks Sean to kill the guy for the sum of $13 000. Sean agrees to do the job but when he comes to collect all hell breaks loose. The "bad guys" do not want to pay him what they agreed on and when Sean mention he's hiding a file that he stole from the victim that'll link Ray and his crew to the murder they take him out to a ranch in the desert and beat him senseless... for days. That's pretty much all I can tell you right now but do watch the film because it's so definitely worth it.
The story couldn't be any more simple but that's just it, it doesn't have to be complicated to deliver, it just have to be able to get your attention and keep you interested and that is exactly what KING OF THE ANTS does. From start to finish this film is pretty much ace and it's pretty much impossible not to be affected by it as there are definitely some scenes that are not for the squeamish. What is really interesting is that the film doesn't have many things at all that would make you connect it to Gordon, still it's a Gordon film and if you've seen his other films and take a look at this one too you'll know exactly what I mean. It doesn't make it a bit bad though, on the contrary, when you have a great story to work with you go with it despite of what you may have done before.
KINGS OF THE ANTS is a revenge flick that may be simple but that have something about it that just makes it work so darn well and therefore it is definitely worth a rent. A word of warning though, the film has some very strong scenes of violence so if you have a weak stomach you may wanna stay away.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2003
DIRECTOR: Stuart Gordon
WRITING CREDITS: Charlie Higson
GENRE: Horror, Thriller, Crime, Drama
CAST: Chris McKenna, Kari Wuhrer, George Wendt
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 102 min
RATING: 8/10
King of the Ants Website/IMDB Click here
King of the Ants Trailer
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