Don't be alarmed, there's nothing wrong with your television set. The blurry black dots on the screen are the makers' ingenious method to illustrate that the world is infested with killer bees!
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I was expecting to see a rather silly and typically cheesy late 70s B-movie in the 'nature runs amok' sub-genre, but I wasn't the least bit prepared for "The Bees" turning out to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious and awfully inept horror films of all times! This film, courtesy of the nobly unknown writer/director Alfredo Zacarías, deserves far more honor than I can write down in a simple review. "The Bees" deserves essays, novels and even complete MST3K specials to be dedicated to it, because that's how bad - but wondrously entertaining - this movie is!
Where to start with a masterpiece of lousiness like this? I believe the following sentence, which I stole from the trivia-section, pretty well summarizes what sort of utter nonsense you can expect: "Alfredo Zacarías got the idea for the story after his son gave him a jar of honey as a gift". Oh wow, that truly is the sort of inspiration where Academy Award winning titles are made of. I think I'll offer my dad a toy soldier and encourage him to script an epos on World War II! Writing a plot synopsis for "The Bees" is pointless, because it'll sound convoluted and intelligent even though it's dead simple and dumb. Here goes: African killer bees, that are being researched in South America, get illegally imported into North America by greedy cosmetics companies. Evidently, a few ones escape and in a very brief period of time, the entire US is beset by aggressive buzzers. The brilliant scientist Dr. Sigmund Hummel (John Carradine) and his niece (Angel Tompkins) team up with hunky Dr. John Norman (John Saxon) and develop an artificial pheromone to neutralize the male specimens, but the super-intelligent bees strike back even harder than before.
Sounds promising, doesn't it? And it is, until you discover that the first solution consists of turning the male bees into homosexuals, and the entire third act deals with Saxon and Tompkins actually communicating with the bees and spreading their warning to humanity to stop messing around with Mother Nature! If you are into really bad cinema, "The Bees" features one inane highlight after the other. A talented and experienced actor like John Saxon must have realized that the speeches he gives to the alleged board of the United Nations are utter drivel? Tompkins carries around killer bees in her beauty-case, the bee-attacks are completely random and the supposedly "shocked" and "petrified" looks on the faces of people are genuinely priceless. Notably the attacks at a beach and during the Gerald Ford parade are laugh-out-loud hysterical! But the - hands down - most bonkers quality of the film is the role of John Carradine as the German Dr. Sigmund Hummel; - or "Ziggy" as he's referred to by Tompkins and Saxon. There absolutely isn't any reason for this character to be German, but Carradine fully grabs the opportunity to go tremendously over the top with his accent, facial expressions and gestures. Sometimes, Dr. Ziggy simply falls asleep whilst others are talking, and then he wakes up and begins chattering about "Zhe beez! Zhe beez!".
You can't possibly give "The Bees" a higher rating than 3 out of 10, but ratings are meaningless for this type of films. It's guaranteed entertainment to watch alone, but preferably even with a group of friends. There are also plenty of other 70s bee-movies available to form a double-feature with, but make sure to avoid the big-budgeted "The Swarm" since that one is a pretentious and dull flick.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I was expecting to see a rather silly and typically cheesy late 70s B-movie in the 'nature runs amok' sub-genre, but I wasn't the least bit prepared for "The Bees" turning out to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious and awfully inept horror films of all times! This film, courtesy of the nobly unknown writer/director Alfredo Zacarías, deserves far more honor than I can write down in a simple review. "The Bees" deserves essays, novels and even complete MST3K specials to be dedicated to it, because that's how bad - but wondrously entertaining - this movie is!
Where to start with a masterpiece of lousiness like this? I believe the following sentence, which I stole from the trivia-section, pretty well summarizes what sort of utter nonsense you can expect: "Alfredo Zacarías got the idea for the story after his son gave him a jar of honey as a gift". Oh wow, that truly is the sort of inspiration where Academy Award winning titles are made of. I think I'll offer my dad a toy soldier and encourage him to script an epos on World War II! Writing a plot synopsis for "The Bees" is pointless, because it'll sound convoluted and intelligent even though it's dead simple and dumb. Here goes: African killer bees, that are being researched in South America, get illegally imported into North America by greedy cosmetics companies. Evidently, a few ones escape and in a very brief period of time, the entire US is beset by aggressive buzzers. The brilliant scientist Dr. Sigmund Hummel (John Carradine) and his niece (Angel Tompkins) team up with hunky Dr. John Norman (John Saxon) and develop an artificial pheromone to neutralize the male specimens, but the super-intelligent bees strike back even harder than before.
Sounds promising, doesn't it? And it is, until you discover that the first solution consists of turning the male bees into homosexuals, and the entire third act deals with Saxon and Tompkins actually communicating with the bees and spreading their warning to humanity to stop messing around with Mother Nature! If you are into really bad cinema, "The Bees" features one inane highlight after the other. A talented and experienced actor like John Saxon must have realized that the speeches he gives to the alleged board of the United Nations are utter drivel? Tompkins carries around killer bees in her beauty-case, the bee-attacks are completely random and the supposedly "shocked" and "petrified" looks on the faces of people are genuinely priceless. Notably the attacks at a beach and during the Gerald Ford parade are laugh-out-loud hysterical! But the - hands down - most bonkers quality of the film is the role of John Carradine as the German Dr. Sigmund Hummel; - or "Ziggy" as he's referred to by Tompkins and Saxon. There absolutely isn't any reason for this character to be German, but Carradine fully grabs the opportunity to go tremendously over the top with his accent, facial expressions and gestures. Sometimes, Dr. Ziggy simply falls asleep whilst others are talking, and then he wakes up and begins chattering about "Zhe beez! Zhe beez!".
You can't possibly give "The Bees" a higher rating than 3 out of 10, but ratings are meaningless for this type of films. It's guaranteed entertainment to watch alone, but preferably even with a group of friends. There are also plenty of other 70s bee-movies available to form a double-feature with, but make sure to avoid the big-budgeted "The Swarm" since that one is a pretentious and dull flick.