The Wasp Woman

I saw this film because I like to watch monsters run around and eat people! And there's plenty of rubbersuit-monster stompin n' chompin n' slicin n' dicin! See her turn into a wasp in bed with a man! See her rip a rival model apart right in the photo room! See her morph in broad daylight! See a weird dream sequence that proves, once and for all, that too much sunlight CAN kill you! :) Frightfully silly, but that just adds to its cheese/fun factor. It's one of my favorite killer-bug movies!

The Wasp Woman (1995) was a made-for-cable version of the original 1960 classic B-movie. Well, this was made for pay cable but the film-makers didn't focus enough on the adult aspect of the story-line. Instead they tried to make a cheesy sci-fi/horror film with enough glad handing and back slapping to make this one unenjoyable. This remake was a lot better than the one made several years before, but it still is missing something. I mean you have a decent director Jim Wynorski and an attractive lead actress, plus the theme of the film. I don't know. Maybe I was hoping too much for an actual movie that delivers the goods.

Well, it was a decent made-for-cable-t.v. movie. But it could have been so much better. Believe me it could have. Who knows, maybe three times the charm!

Slightly recommended.

There is a long list of movies that should never have been made. Congo, 200 Cigarettes, Cool World, My Blue Heaven, Eye of the Beholder to name a few, and alas, Wasp Woman. This movie was beyond bad. I could have done better with a ten year old Camcorder, a fifth grade drama class, and a shoebox diorama. I'm all for campy films that appeal to my sense of goofy, but this film tried to pass itself off as legit. My husband and I watched it on late-night cable and scarily enough, found ourselves unable to turn it off. We were just so amazed at the horrible acting, wretched makeup (drawing lines with an eye pencil on Jennifer Rubin's face does not an aging woman make), ridiculous "special" effects, and lack of continuity. In one scene, the receptionist is walking down a hallway. She has straight hair. When she opens the door and sits down outside, she has very curly hair. Bad. But, if you want to watch a complete no-brainer, this is for you!

Here's another pretty faithful redo of the 1960 Roger Corman camp classic. The story is still fun but I prefer the original. Jennifer Rubin (who knows she's in a B-movie, and acts accordingly) is Janice Starlin, owner and "the face" of Starlin Cosmetics. She's also approaching middle age and her job modeling her own product is threatened when company execs bring in sexy, blonde Caitlin (Maria Ford) to take her place. An experimental youth serum created using wasp hormones by Dr. Zinthrop (Daniel J. Travanti) is taken by Janice and restores her beauty, but there's a price to pay as she periodically transforms into a giant, murderous wasp (with cleavage!). This never aspires to be more than a cheesy exploitation movie and works in its own realm; if your apt to rent a movie called WASP WOMAN in the first place you shouldn't be too disappointed with this. Plus, whoever designed the wasp/monster costume has a terrific sense of humor. It's hilarious! Same goes for a memorable death scene featuring Gerrit Graham that the makers of the 1960 version wouldn't have even conceived filming! Corman served as executive producer.

Being a fan of Coman's original creation from 1959 I had a hard time stomaching this remake. Sure the original film has its flaws like most Coman films with its dragged out dialog and quite boring mid-plot but it sure had charm which is something this film lacks. Everything ain't bad though and even if Wynorski fills out the majority of the plot with boring sex scenes there's one thing that this remake does better than the original and that the actual wasp woman. I'm not talking about Jennifer Rubin who just like a wasp couldn't act her way out of a paper bag; I'm talking about the transformed version of her. In the original film it was basically just Susan Cabot running around in a black spandex suit. This time Cormans studio actually put some dollars into creating a monster which is far far from believable but nevertheless quite creepy (almost at least). Sure it's stale and quite weird in some scenes but thinking of the budget and the year it was shot the only alternative would have been CGI-effects and we all know how that went in Dinosaur Island.

The story follows Cormans classic to the book with some exceptions but even so I can't help but asking myself what went wrong along the way. The whole film feels like a dragged out episode from Tales of the crypt. A show that I love but there was a reason why these episodes never went full-length.

Leaving this film behind in my Wynorskivaganza marathon (which never became a marathon because of work and other stuff to do) I am left with an empty feeling since it didn't really deliver where Wynorski often delivers. The sexy parts of the film are far from sexy, it lacks any humor like some of his other work and that creative cord that was still intact in his earlier films is long gone. In many ways it reminded me about his remake of Not of this earth. An movie that somehow survived a complete trashing thanks to its original story, which it copied from a 50's flick.