Phase IV
Phase IV is a 1974 film from the UK and the USA, directed by Saul Bass, running 84 minutes. reelscum files it under natural horror.
- Year
- 1974 · 1970s films
- Runtime
- 84 min
- Director
- Saul Bass
- Updated
- 29 Oct 2026
- Obscurity
- known (33/100)
Defined in the glossary: Natural horror
Saul Bass's only feature. Ants, geometry, and an ending nobody saw for 40 years.
Saul Bass, the legendary title designer, made exactly one feature, and it is this coldly beautiful oddity. Ants in the Arizona desert achieve collective intelligence and go to war with two scientists in a sealed dome, and Bass shoots the insects in extraordinary macro detail as a alien intelligence.
It is closer to 2001 than to a creature feature, cerebral and unnerving, with a psychedelic original ending that was cut for decades and only recently restored. The ants are the most convincing non-human minds in 70s science fiction.
A one-of-a-kind film by a one-time director. Seek out the full version.
Trailer
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Where to watch
Legal options in USA
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