Them! 4K UHD Review: Nuclear Testing Has an Ant Problem

Anyone who still thinks Them! is just a 1950s giant bug movie has clearly never had ants invade a kitchen, a picnic, or the inside of a wall. Ants are not peaceful. They are organized, relentless, and disturbingly good at turning a small problem into a full-scale occupation. Fortunately, they do not have nuclear death rays. Were that to happen, Raid could go sit back down.

Gordon Douglas’ 1954 science-fiction classic takes that very real anxiety and gives it an atomic-age upgrade. Much like Godzilla, released the same year in Japan, Them! uses nuclear weapons testing as more than a convenient monster-movie excuse. The bomb does not merely create a creature; it creates a consequence. Godzilla turned nuclear trauma into a walking national nightmare. Them! takes American desert testing, mutates one of nature’s most efficient predators, and follows the premise to its logical extreme: if radiation made ants gigantic, humanity would have a very serious problem under its floorboards.

That is one reason the film has always remained one of my favorite childhood discoveries. Yes, the title is blunt. Yes, the ants are enormous. Yes, there is a giant insect shriek that can make your dog leave the room. But Them! is far smarter and more disciplined than its reputation as a creature feature suggests. It works because Douglas does not treat the material like disposable drive-in nonsense. He stages the film like a police procedural that slowly mutates into a military thriller, letting the dread build long before the monsters take center stage.

James Whitmore stars as New Mexico State Police Sergeant Ben Peterson, who discovers a traumatized young girl wandering alone in the desert near a destroyed trailer. A nearby general store has been ripped apart, its owner killed, and sugar scattered across the floor. FBI agent Robert Graham, played by James Arness, joins the investigation, and the evidence soon brings in entomologists Dr. Harold Medford and Dr. Patricia Medford, played by Edmund Gwenn and Joan Weldon. Their conclusion is not exactly the kind of thing one wants to hear before lunch: atomic testing has mutated ordinary ants into enormous predators capable of spreading new colonies.

From there, Them! moves from the New Mexico desert to the storm drains of Los Angeles, where the surviving queens threaten to reproduce beneath the city. Flamethrowers, soldiers, missing children, and one of the great “what the hell is making that sound?” monster noises in cinema follow. The effects may look mechanical by modern standards, but the film’s sense of escalation still works because the threat is treated seriously.

That seriousness is why Them! remains both popular and underrated. Fans of classic science fiction and horror know exactly why it matters, but the broader audience still tends to file it under “old movie with big ants.” That undersells it badly. The film is tense, well-acted, sharply paced, and rooted in the same nuclear unease that gave the 1950s its most durable monsters. Childhood nostalgia brought me back to Them! more than once; the craftsmanship, atmosphere, and stubbornly effective nightmare logic are why it has never left the shelf.

The Best Them! Has Ever Looked

Scream Factory’s two-disc Collector’s Edition gives Them! the 4K UHD and Blu-ray treatment, with both discs housed in a standard case and slipcover. The new transfer comes from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative, and the UHD is presented in native 2160p with Dolby Vision and HDR10 support. The disc is framed at 1.67:1, which keeps it very close to the film’s original 1.66:1 theatrical presentation.

I have owned Them! in just about every home video format one could reasonably defend without requiring an intervention, and this UHD is easily the best the film has ever looked in my collection. The old Warner Bros. Blu-ray was perfectly watchable for its time, but putting it on after the Scream Factory 4K is not especially kind to it. The UHD offers a more stable grayscale, deeper blacks, better dimensionality, and a far more convincing layer of film grain. On the Warner disc, grain could look clumpy and somewhat flat. Even Scream Factory’s included Blu-ray does not fully escape that flatter appearance, but the 4K disc finally gives the image some real texture and depth.

The Dolby Vision presentation is not about turning Them! into some glossy modern spectacle, which would be a crime against common sense and giant ants alike. The HDR gives the black-and-white photography more separation and snap, especially in darker interiors, desert exteriors, and the Los Angeles storm-drain sequences. Fine detail is also stronger, with facial textures, uniforms, sand, concrete, and practical effects all looking more resolved without making the film appear scrubbed or artificially sharpened.

Does the Mono Track Still Have Bite?

Scream Factory includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track, and it is a meaningful upgrade over the earlier Warner Blu-ray. The 2015 disc was listenable, but dialogue could sit too low in the mix, and the presentation lacked the presence needed to make the film’s sound design fully register.

The new track sounds cleaner, better balanced, and more authoritative without pretending to be something it is not. Dialogue is easier to follow, Bronislau Kaper’s score has welcome warmth, and the effects have more weight than expected from a 1954 mono presentation. The ant shrieks remain sharp and unsettling, while bazooka shots, explosions, aircraft, and the storm-drain climax land with more impact.

Through the Focal Mu-so Hekla currently under review, the track had surprising scale and body without feeling artificially inflated. It also helps that Joan Weldon’s Dr. Patricia Medford could explain ant behavior for hours and still hold one’s attention, even if her delivery is so composed that the giant radioactive insects almost sound like a scheduling issue.

“THEM! Memories” is a short Richard Bellis interview, with the former child actor recalling his small role, Sandy Descher, and Gordon Douglas’ very 1950s method of producing tears on command.

“Nameless Terror” gives Courtney Joyner time to explain why Gordon Douglas and Warner Bros. turned Them! into something far better than just another bug problem with a budget.

“Entering the Atomic Age” focuses on James Arness, his John Wayne connection, and why his understated performance works alongside James Whitmore, Joan Weldon, Edmund Gwenn, and Fess Parker.

The archival extras include the brief 2003 behind-the-scenes footage of the giant ants and the original theatrical trailer; neither is pristine, but both are worth having unless one is allergic to context.

Scream Factory’s Them! Collector’s Edition is the best home video presentation this atomic-age classic has received, with a superb 4K image, stronger mono audio, and enough supplemental material to remind viewers that giant radioactive ants were never the silly part. The silly part was assuming humanity could keep detonating nuclear weapons in the desert and not eventually create something that wanted sugar, darkness, and possibly Los Angeles.

Movie Details:

• STUDIO: Scream Factory / Shout! Studios
• FORMAT: Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray (June 16, 2026)
• THEATRICAL RELEASE YEAR: 1954
• ASPECT RATIO: 1.67:1
• ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO: 1.66:1
• HDR FORMATS: Dolby Vision, HDR10
• AUDIO FORMAT: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
• LENGTH: 94 mins.
• MPAA RATING: Not Rated
• DIRECTOR: Gordon Douglas
• STARRING: James Whitmore, James Arness, Joan Weldon, Edmund Gwenn, Fess Parker, Sandy Descher

Our Ratings

★★★★★★★★★★ Movie

★★★★★★★★★★ Picture

★★★★★★★★★★ Sound

★★★★★★★★★★ Extras

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