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Phase IV

Phase IV

Horror · Science Fiction · 1974

Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.

Movie details

Phase IV

“The day the Earth was turned into a cemetery!”

1974 Horror · Science Fiction 1h 26m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Phase IV?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

The Blob

The Blob

Horror · 1958

A drive-in favorite, this sci-fi classic follows teenagers Steve and his best girl, Jane, as they try to protect their hometown from a gelatinous alien life form that engulfs everything it touches. The first to discover the substance and live to tell about it, Steve and Jane witness the blob destroying an elderly man, then it growing to a terrifying size. But no one else has seen the goo, and policeman Dave refuses to believe the kids without proof.

Return of the Fly

Return of the Fly

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Fifteen years after his father's experiments with matter transmission fail, Philippe Delambre and his uncle François attempt to create a matter transmission device on their own. However, their experiments have disastrous results, turning Philippe into a horrible half-man, half-fly creature.

X: The Unknown

X: The Unknown

Horror · 1956

Army radiation experiments awaken a subterranean monster from a fissure that feeds on energy and proceeds to terrorise a remote Scottish village. An American research scientist at a nearby nuclear plant joins with a British investigator to discover why the victims were radioactively burned and why, shortly thereafter, a series of radiation-related incidents are occurring in an ever-growing straight line away from the fissure.

The Return of Doctor X

The Return of Doctor X

Sci-fi · 1939

When news reporter Walter Garrett arrives at the hotel room of bombshell actress Angela Merrova to conduct an interview, he finds her dead from multiple stab wounds. He returns with the police to find the hotel empty and the body vanished. Garrett writes about the incident but is fired when Merrova, alive and well, goes to the paper to complain. Now his only chance to get his job back is to find the truth, which involves the grisly scheme of a madman.

Mark of the Vampire

Mark of the Vampire

Mystery · 1935

Sir Borotyn, a prominent Prague resident, is discovered murdered in his home, with all indications pointing to a vampire assault. The victim's friend, Baron Otto, and the physician who analyzes the body, are certain that the vampire is the mysterious Count Mora or his daughter. Receiving little help from the law, Professor Zelen, an expert in the occult, is called in to assist with their investigation.

Island of Terror

Island of Terror

Horror · 1966

When a small island community becomes overrun with creeping, blobbish, tentacled monsters that liquefy and digest the bones from living creatures, the community struggles to fight back.

Invaders from Mars

Invaders from Mars

Sci-fi · 1953

A boy tries to stop aliens that have taken over his town and are brainwashing its inhabitants.

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Horror · 1983

An anthology film presenting remakes of three episodes from the "Twilight Zone" TV series—"Kick the Can", "It's a Good Life" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"—and one original story, "Time Out."

Silver Bullet

Silver Bullet

Horror · 1985

The small city of Tarker's Mills is startled by a series of sadistic murders. The population fears the work of a maniac, but sightings of a mysterious, hairy creature soon spread. People lock themselves up at night, but there's one boy who's still outside…

The Horror of Frankenstein

The Horror of Frankenstein

Horror · 1970

Brilliant but arrogant scientist Victor Frankenstein builds a man from spare body parts, only for the monster to come alive and wreak havoc.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Saul Bass

Written by

Mayo Simon

Nigel Davenport

Nigel Davenport

Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs

Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy

James R. Lesko

Lynne Frederick

Lynne Frederick

Kendra Eldridge

Alan Gifford

Alan Gifford

Mr. Eldridge

Robert Henderson

Robert Henderson

Clete

Helen Horton

Helen Horton

Mildred Eldridge

David Healy

David Healy

Radio Announcer (voice) (uncredited)

Court is in session

Put Phase IV on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.