Spikeopath
It still seems ridiculous that after all these years of cinema and all its advancements, that we are still waiting for a good killer bee/wasp/hornet movie. As it turns out, The Savage Bees, in spite of its TV budget production, is the best on offer.Plot in a nutshell sees a strain of African Killer Bees sneak over to the deep south of America via freighter. Once child and pet meet with nasty ends courtesy of the buzzing menace, the authorities come to realise what is going on and must do something before The Mardis Gras celebrations becomes a lambs to the slaughter type scenario.Cast are strong enough for the material, with "name" actors such as Ben Johnson and Horst Buchholz lending their support to the production. The science isn't half bad, the threads involving colour rage and water are interesting, and even though the Bee Genocide finale goes out with a whimper, the idea behind it is at least well thought out.Disposable and forgettable, but enjoyable enough while it's on. It was popular enough to spawn (or should that be swarm?) a sequel, Terror Out of the Sky (1978). 4/10
DecaturCentaur
Loved this movie! Watched it on TV back in '76, six days before my 12th b'day and it absolutely terrified me...the only movie that ever made me shake(my sister had to call my mother home from visiting her mother to calm me down)- my reaction could have been caused by me getting a bit to close to a hive a year earlier and being chased more than a quarter of a mile and stung an estimated 75 times...I still have nightmares about it- and it was exactly like in the movies...screaming and swatting wildly while their buzz filled the air. Anyway, I watched the movie again about 15 years later, and, of course, it didn't have the same effect, but this time, I actually got to enjoy the movie. It's a charming '70's movie with a lot of personality. It's well acted, well written...and the action scenes are well done and not to slick(like so many of todays' flicks). It also gives some factual history on how the Africanized bees came to be. I loved the background being New Orleans, with my favorite scene being the couple dressed as pirates who, I think, had had a bit to much to drink, drove their Cougar convertible to a bee infested hotdog stand. They just don't make them like this anymore(and I don't think it would work now..not enough gore and computerized effects). GOOD STUFF..and one of the best of the killer insect movies of the '70s.
Vomitron_G
This was my third killer-bee-flick in a row, back when the urge overtook me to watch some of those. So this made-for-TV flick from the 70's ended my Killer Bee Trilogy. At the time of its release, it would've probably deserved a 6/10 rating. But it didn't age well, plus it borrows just a bit too much from the "Jaws"-plot (again!). Still, it's a rather serious film and at no point it becomes really ridiculous. You could say it contains a lot of clichés that every killer bee movie seems to have: The bees always invade a small town first. There's a male/female duo of scientists that discover the phenomenon. The authorities won't believe them. There's always a big festivity planned or going on in the town. The two scientists will eventually kiss each other. And if you're lucky, you'll get to see the bee-threat stopped/destroyed in an original way (which was more or less the case in "The Savage Bees"). So I'll be mild in my final rating. But I have to say: the most fun killer-bee movie I saw, out of these three, was "Swarmed" (2005). The lame "Killer Bees!" (2002) pretty much sucked.
jonathan-577
I say Ben Johnson and my fellow Canadians say, "Ben Johnson?!" - he was a goddam MOVIE STAR guys, a COWBOY, and by 1976 he was scraping by playing a sheriff in stupid made for TV disaster movies such as this, cashing in on the DEADLY SWARMS OF KILLER BEES that everyone apparently thought were coming to get us at the time. So there's these bees, and they kill some people by flying in their mouth and going after them underwater. Eventually these idiots find the swarm and die and this woman is trapped in her car by the entire swarm. The cops are like, what do we do? Uh, bees die when it's cold. So where could we make it cold? I know - the stadium in New Orleans! So they drive this car and its attendant swarm of killer bees on and on through the streets of New Orleans, with a bullhorn saying "GET OFF THE STREETS OR YOU WILL BE STUNG TO DEATH." And the future home of tens of thousands of flood victims with its broken toilets so becomes the narcotic doom of this particular buncha bees. I don't know which is the greater indignity on this great city...well I do, but this one sucks too. Most appropriately viewed on an extremely faded-to-orange 16mm print, although Betamax is a good alternative!
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