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Often regarded the best of the atomic age ‘giant critter’ flicks, Them! is best in the beginning, during two police officers’ discovery of a little girl roaming the desert in a catatonic state. Looking for her family, they come across a demolished trailer and a destroyed store, a few dead bodies — and what’s that eerie sound? It’s genuinely spooky for a while.

Production values are unusually high for a B-movie and the acting is better than usual, especially from Edmund Gwenn, who delivers all the doom and gloom exposition and lectures us on the dangers of science (because somebody has to, dammit). Aside from the wonderful opening, there’s also a nice sequence where a team of police and scientists descend into the ant colony and attack the ants with flame throwers (flame throwers are ALWAYS cool).

As it winds down, Them! starts to look more and more like any other atomic flick, with the creatures holding a city under siege and humanity on the brink, only to be saved by a handful of smarty-pants and military types — but it has enough going for it in the first two-thirds to recommend, and to set it apart from most other titles in the genre.