Las abejas asesinas

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.

**SPOILERS** One of the first "Killer Bee" movies to come out in the late 1970's "The Savage Bees" starts out with this Brazilian banana boat, the Cornila Rios, limping into New Orleans Harbor with everyone on deck being either missing or dead.

later in the movie a local Sheriff Donald McKew, Ben Johnson,finds his dog Zeth dead and despite it being Fat Tuesday and the Mardi Gras parade he takes Zeth's body to the City Coroner's Office to find out what killed him. Assistant Coroner Dr. Jeff DuRand, Michael Parks, sees something in Seth's stomach that truly disturbs him and calls his girlfriend and entomologist Jenny Devereaut, Gretchen Corbett, to check it out. It turns out that his as well as the city of New Orleans, worst fears are borne out. Zeth was killed by a swarm of deadly killer African Bees.

With a number the crew of the Corlina Rios bodies recovered from New Orleans Harbor it becomes more and more evident that the banana boat has a colony of African Bees hidden in it's hull.

Trying to keep the story of the invading African Bees under wraps Sheriff McKew has a number of his men fan out in the countryside to find the African Bees hive and at the same time both Jeff and Jenny get in touch with bee expert Dr. Rufus Carter, Paul Hecth. Dr. Rufus warns them not to disperse the deadly bees, with fire and insecticide, because it would only have them invade friendly European or Italian Bees hives and take them over and start dozens, if not hundreds, of African Bee colonies. Thosesbees would attack and kill thousands of people and livestock all around the state.

Dr. Carter gets in touch with the biggest authority on the killer African Bees Brazilian professor & Dr. Jorge Meuller, Horst Bucholtz,and has him come to the city's rescue but it turns out that the Killer Bees were a lot tougher, and more dangerous, then even Dr. Meuller thought that they were.

Even though a bit lacking in production values "The Savage Bees" is a lot better then the far more expensive and star studded Killer Bee deserter movie "The Swarm" that turned out to be a real disaster and bombed out in the movie houses a few years later. Dr.Meuller is killed when trying to catch the Queen African Bee when a couple of drunken Mardi Gras party goers accidental cut open, with a plastic sword, his anti-bee protective suit thus being, together with the two party drunks, stung to death.

Jenny ends up being stuck in her red Volkswagon,the color red attracts the killer bees. Jeff in a last act of desperation has her drive the car with him in a police car pushing her Volkswagon, the last mile, through the now empty streets of New Orleans into the Superdome.

The temperature inside the enclosed sport facility is lowered to 45 degrees immobilizing the killer bees and having them collected and brought into the custody of Dr. Rufus Carter's lab for further study. It's just too bad that one of the killer bees survived capture and escaped to start the entire horror of attacking African Bees all over again in about a dozens or so movies that followed "The Savage Bees".

This is a fun film, very much your typical creatures turning bad kind of movies that the 70's did so well. Surprisingly the misogyny is toned down somewhat (for a 70's movie that is.) The special effects are pretty good and the acting is solid enough.

This is one of several movies that involved killer bees, killer spiders and killer ants. While many of them are pretty low grade, this one does put in the effort.

It is not a perfect movie by any means, but it is one that is fun to watch just for the 70's hair styles and clothes. If you enjoy these kinds of horror/thriller movies this is one actually worth watching.

This is not just another cheapy television movie from the 1970s, but actually an intelligent, scary horror film worth seeing, something along the lines of "Kingdom of the Spiders" or "Phase IV" - 2 other very good underrated insect attack movies. There is some good location filming of New Orleans and the swamps of Southern Louisiana, and veteran Ben Johnson is solid in the lead role of the local sheriff. Movies like this need to know how to push the right buttons, and this one does, containing one scene with a scientist in a protective suit poking a giant beehive that really impressed me with how skillfully it was set up. This ain't Shakespeare, but it is the finest quality you will find for this genre.

I remember seeing this movie on T.V. as it was starting back in the 70's and being just too lazy to get up and change the channel thinking "not another killer bee movie". I'm glad we didn't have remote controls back then, as this proved to be very good little made-for-TV flick.

First off, the movie does a very good job with the "science" aspect, explaining how the very aggressive African Killer Bees are making their way to the U.S. and are almost unstoppable. Also, the cast does a very good job in building suspense and empathy in the characters they portrayed, with the strongest by Gretchen Corbett as the lead female character, with the weakest character being the sheriff.

In spite of being made in 1976, this movie is surprisingly not all that dated in look and atmosphere. The pacing is good and the effects are fine for this type of movie, although, with all of the computer tricks available now, they could have enhanced some of the final scenes. But, again, the performances are good enough to make up for any short comings in the effects department.

I recently dug this movie up in a box of video tapes I had recorded in the 80's and decided to put it to the real test. I invited my 13 year old son in to watch some of it with me, and after 15 minutes or so he was hooked and wanted to watch the whole movie.

It seems that they never show these good old made-for-TV movies on T.V. any more, so a DVD release would be nice. This one gets 8 out of 10. You will forever associate the Voltz-Wagon Bug with this movie.