Those ideas ripple, but there's also a queasy revulsion baked into the idea that the pests we've spent much of our lives stomping could do the same to us.
Filmed before self-awareness defanged much of '50s sci-fi genre, Them! is a relic of the "nuclear monster" era that, nearly 70 years later, retains much of its original glow. Sure, it's about big ants terrorizing the States, but it's also about everyday people grappling with their justified fears of a post-nuclear world in which everything they've come to know has been tainted and made dangerous. Those ideas ripple, but there's also a queasy revulsion baked into the idea that the pests we've spent much of our lives stomping could do the same to us.