31 days of Halloween: Invasion of the Bee Girls

Not a lot can be said about Invasion of the Bee Girls, a 1973 exploitative "horror" film, at least not a lot that's good. Surprisingly, from the mess this film is, it is entirely enjoyable in the "it's so bad, it's good" way. Like a person who can't look away from an accident. This isn't like Schadenfreude (I'd watch something really bad like that horrible comedy "100 Girls" for that). Invasion is a wonderful B-movie which highlights just about every facet of what a mid-70s B-movie was.

The cinematography is horrible, the lighting is sub-standard, the direction is, well: directionless. The screenplay is obviously written as tongue-in-cheek camp, as there is no plausible way that Nicolas Meyer (Star Trek II, IV, VI) could have written something like this without chuckling all the way to the bank. That is, unless he was really desperate for money. So, with that in mind, it fits the bill for a 1970s exploitation grind-house flick.

The plot entails a town who is beginning to have mysterious deaths begin to pile up. The strange connection is that these deaths are sudden and are happening to people who are otherwise healthy - not to mention in the process of having sexual intercourse. Hilarious right? Yes, there are "Bee" girls - even including the "conversion" process to "Bee girl" that involves stinging the females, stripping, then plastering them with some sort of opaque liquid latex/plaster before covering them with none other than - Bees. I guess it's that easy. As an added bonus the women scientists really pull off the look... right.

** out of *****