For some reason I was trying to remember Empire of the Ants (1977) but realized in my memories I was mixing it up with Frogs (1972). Faced with the horrifying prospect of having to re-watch it to jog my memory.
Side note: I would absolutely watch a horror movie about a bunch of people going to the Florida swamps to shoot a bad horror movie on a shoestring budget, only to be menaced by regular Florida creatures such as gators, crocs, Florida Man, fire ants, feral hogs, etc. In the end, the real monster is the director insisting they have to keep shooting.
@nev can we get Werner Herzog to narrate?
Think of the character opportunities. Aging star(let) just in it for the paycheque, earnest ingenu(e), jaded old special effects person dragged out of retirement for One Last Ride, grad student consultant trying to warn them all about Messing with Nature, etc.
@nev Locals (of varying ages/who can fill various character roles) who they hired for low-training day-to-day tasks,