Another reason to proclaim the 1970's as the coolest decade for horror and cult cinema: those numerous "nature revolting against humanity" flicks! The seventies were plentiful of movies that introduced all sorts of animal species, in various sizes and degree of cuddliness, as relentless killing machines. Insects and arachnids were particularly popular because their ugly appearance automatically scares a lot of people, so the idea of these little critters going on an intentional killing spree would be really petrifying. "Phase IV", from 1974, understood this very well and depicted a simple ant colony as an aggressively revolting army, but "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" can only aspire to be something unsettling, scary or suspenseful. This is actually quite a hilarious movie, even though that definitely wasn't the makers' intention. Sleazy businessman Tony Fleming is heading for Lakewood, a quiet and peaceful holiday resort near the coast, to purchase the cozy Adams' family hotel and turn it into a casino. Right next to the hotel is a construction site and the workers stumble upon billions of hostile ants whose bite became poisonous due to – of course – mankind's continuous use of pesticides. Luckily the ants only attack if they feel threatened. So basically the situation isn't catastrophic at all and there is plenty of time to safely evacuate the hotel guests, but since nobody believes his ant-theory, the alleged "hero" goes bonkers and starts agitating them with his bulldozer for a seemingly endless amount of time! Naturally the seriously upset insects invade the hotel after that, but it's his own entire damn fault! From then onwards the movie gradually becomes more ridiculous with every minute that passes. A handful of people remains trapped inside the hotel with ants closing in on them even though, at least according to, they could easily just walk out and squish hundreds of them underneath their shoes. They're ants, for Christ's sake, not grizzlies! What happens next is the world's worst organized large-scaled rescue operation in history. Here we have the local police force, the fire department and the coast guard collaborating together, but they actually bring lives in danger rather than saving them. I swear, if these people would ever have to fight a really big fire, we would have a severe massacre on our hands. They don't know how to operate rescue ladders and literally blow killer ants upon innocent spectators. If all this isn't embarrassing enough just yet, "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" ends with a serious anti-climax by showing the remaining survivors sitting still for nearly ten minutes. Another lesson learned: you can survive an ant invasion if you remain motionless and breathe through a straw of wallpaper. The film stars Suzanne Somers, who I only know from that dreadful sitcom "Step by Step" in which she was married to Patrick Duffy and had some really hot daughters, in a very suitable role. She's the mistress of the obnoxious businessman and throughout half the film she tries to convince him that she's more than just a blond bimbo with a nice rack. Obviously, all she ever does is behave like a blond bimbo with a nice rack and then she gets eaten by ants! Anyway, as you can tell, "It Happened at Lakewood Manor" isn't a good – or even remotely decent – horror film, but you definitely won't feel bored. The special effects must have been quite cheap in this case. From a bit of a distance, the ants just look like little black spots on the walls and the ceiling. It's strange that the script of this film was penned down by Guerdon Trueblood, who also wrote the other creature features flicks "Tarantula: The Deadly Cargo" and "The Savage Bees" and directed the exploitation classic "The Candy Snatchers". All of these films are numerous times better than this inept and wannabe tense TV-excuse for an eco-horror movie. Generous rating 5 out of 10, but only for laughs and entertainment value.
