Empire of the Ants (1977)

Eureka are bringing one of writer-producer-director Bert I Gordon’s later (he’d been making them since the 1950s) giant creature features to Blu-ray. This time it’s Joan Collins fighting giant ants, so that's two major 1970s cult movie boxes ticked.

Property developer Marilyn Fryser (Joan Collins) has brought a bunch of prospective investors to an isolated beach location to give them a tour of where she intends to build a new community of luxury residences. However, she has reckoned without some pesky radioactive waste that has washed up on the shore and which the local ant population have, for some reason, found irresistible.

It’s not long before the cast of late 1970s B movie veterans and familiar TV faces (Robert Lansing, Albert Salmi, Robert Pine, Pamela Susan Shoop) are fighting off creatures that have exhibited miraculous powers of growth with the aid of just a few mouthfuls of silver stuff from an oil drum.

Before you ask ‘did H G Wells ever write such daft exploitative fare?’ well no of course he didn’t, but slapping old Herbert George’s name on THE FOOD OF THE GODS had done well for Bert the previous year so presumably doing it again seemed like a good idea, even if the movie is a far cry from its alleged source material. Back in the 1970s there were three ways of doing giant monsters: Ray Harryhausen-style stop motion, giant puppets or normal creatures filmed and blown up really, really big. Bert I Gordon (known as Mr B.I.G in some circles) always tended to go for the third option but there’s some decent puppet work in here too as Joan and the gang get to grapple with things as calculating, malicious and deadly as her own Alexis Carrington from TV’s Dynasty. Perhaps she used it for a few pointers. In fact the story goes that she was so upset at the 'low point' her career had reached with this she decided to radically overhaul things and starred in THE STUD the following year. The rest, off course, is history and, in way, she and her fans have Bert and his giant ants to thank for that. 

Eureka’s transfer is 1080p HD and unsurprisingly looks better than previous DVD releases. Extras include a jolly and affectionate seven minute introduction from Chris Cooke of Nottingham's Mayhem Film Festival which you might want to watch after the feature if you don't want to know too much about it, an 18 minute talking head piece from Kim Newman on the career of Bert I Gordon, and two commentary tracks, one with the director himself where he requires quite a bit of prompting from an interviewer who doesn't really know that right questions to ask, but don't worry because the other from David Del Valle and Michael Varrati is an absolute hoot with its anecdotes and facts you probably don't know including which kinds of flowers Madonna loathes. The limited edition of 2000 copies also comes with an ‘O’ card slipcase and a booklet featuring a new essay on the film, creature features in general and the 1970s in particular.

Bert I Gordon’s EMPIRE OF THE ANTS is out on Blu-ray from Eureka on Monday 22nd June 2026

Cocaine Bear (2023)

"She Snorts. A Lot"

Elisabeth Banks' nature-gone-wild comedy horror that's based (very loosely, obviously) on a true story gets a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download release from Mediumrare Entertainment.

In 1985 a cocaine smuggler did indeed have to dump their cargo out of an aeroplane, and a black bear was later found dead next to an open sack of the stuff. That's 'Real Events' enough for any amount of exploitation daftness and the only surprising thing is that it's taken this long for a project like COCAINE BEAR to see the light of day.

And here we finally are, firmly in AIP-style nature-gone-wild territory, with a group of disparate characters wandering through a forest unaware that a coked-out bear is eyeing them up for a bit of chill-out entertainment. They include Ray Liotta (in his last role) as the gangster looking for his lost consignment, Margo Martindale as a forest ranger and Keri Russell (from DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES) as the female lead (apart from the bear herself, of course).

It's all good, silly, gory fun with the bear chasing an ambulance a ridiculous highlight. It could easily have been even more over the top, but as it is, a movie called COCAINE BEAR doesn't really deserve to be as good as this turned out (garnering it a cinema release), and a lot of that is down to Elisabeth Banks' direction, which embraces the spirit of those good old-fashioned 1970s DAY OF THE ANIMALS-style pictures with plenty of humour while never skimping on the gore. 

Extras on Mediumrare's disc include a commentary by Banks and producer Max Handelman. 'All Roads Lead to Cokey' is a nine minute making of featuring interviews with members of the cast (but not Liotta) and crew, 'UnBEARable Bloodbath' is eight minutes of looking at the movie's kills, and 'Doing Lines' is four minutes of various members of the cast and crew reading scenes from the script. There are also deleted and extended scenes (four minutes), a gag reel (just the two minutes) and an alternate ending. 

Elisabeth Banks' COCAINE BEAR is out on 4KUHD, Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download on Monday 29th May 2023