The Zanti Misfits

I remember seeing this for the first time and thinking those ugly little ant guys with their threatening faces were the stuff of nightmares. A spaceship is about to land with permission of the U.S. government. The alien culture has said that they are sending a group of prisoners and misfits to Earth. They are to be confined to a place in the desert. If Earth does not comply, God knows what they will do to us. A military installment has been put in a ghost town to oversee the arrival. Everything is fine until Bruce Dern, a bank robber, and his hyped up girlfriend break through a checkpoint, guarded by one guy. He is killed by their car and they make their way into the confined area. Their car overheats and they are stuck without water. Dern is nuts and has domination over the women. He becomes curious when he sees a tiny spaceship has landed on a rock edifice. When he goes to investigate, he is startled and falls into a crevice. Some of the aliens exit the ship. They are large ants with expressive faces, very threatening. An historian who has been writing about the whole process volunteers to check things out as the head of the operation tries to convince the aliens that the invaders are not part of the plan; that they have barged in on the scene. The little ants chase the woman and she is rescued by the historian and brought back to the control center. The story has to do with how we would confront such an unknown which threatens our way of life. The woman (who will probably be charged with being an accessory to robbery and murder) represents the cynical fears of the citizen toward the government. She seems to have nothing to lose and presents a sad subplot. It's obvious that she has never really taken a stand in her life and now that life may be over.

I first watched this when I was 8 years old and had nightmares of Zanti Misfits crawling up my bed. This upset my Mother no end !

So if you are very young and/or of a nervous disposition I recommend avoiding this one.

Otherwise watch this and try to stay calm.

Love this episode and it still gives me the creeps.

The US military must deal with insect-type aliens.

I like this episode a lot but the effects are not up to the standard of other episodes.

However, the nice contrast of alien insects, the US military and the drop out character played by Bruce Dern make this hour fun to watch. Also, the plot is very interesting.

The music is well matched to the hour and the location filming is pleasing to the eye.

If you like Bruce Dern in this I would consider tracking down QM's The Fugitive series as Bruce Dern appeared in that show FIVE times. I would be curious to know if Bruce Dern has ever commented on the Outer Limits over the years or if he even remembers doing it.

The Zanti Misfits is directed by Leonard Horn and written by Joseph Stefano. It stars Michael Tolan, Olive Deering, Robert F. Simon, Claude Woolman and Bruce Dern. Music is by Dominic Frontiere and cinematography by John M. Nickolaus Jr.

Season 1 - Episode 14

The planet Zanti requests Earth to provide a penal colony for its misfit criminals, the ship must not be in anyway interfered with or Earth will face dire consequences. Ceding to the demand, the ghost town of Morgue, California, is set up to receive the criminals, but just as the penal spaceship lands, a fleeing bank robber and his girlfriend put everything on red alert...

The Zantis of the title are a grotesque creation, unsettling in appearance and audible sounds. It may now be true to smile at the rudimentary primitive effects work, but the impact the creatures have remains to this day capable of raising the gooseflesh on your skin. Horn directs some smart set-pieces once the Zanti have been unleashed, all building up to a terrific final reckoning.

Once the episode reveals its hand, with a caustic observation on the human species, we end up with easily one of the best and most memorable episodes from out of the entire Outer Limits catalogue. 9/10

The Earth is forced to take a small number of Xanti criminals, and house them in Morgue, California, a small patch of desert land is allocated to them, and an instruction given, not to approach them.

Joseph Stefano wrote what I would call a classic with The Xanti misfits, it's definitely science fiction, but it has a true horror element thrown in, and decades on, it's still an unsettling watch.

There are so many great themes and ideas, the best of all I thought being The Earth held to ransom by The Zanti. You just know things are going to go wrong, if The Zanti can't deal with their own criminals, it was obvious they were going to cause chaos.

The Zanti really were very well designed and realised, lots of people hate bugs and creepy crawlies, so I can imagine this one unsettling many viewers.

Well acted, well paced, this one is a classic.

9/10.