Invasion of The Bee Girls/Review

From The Grindhouse Cinema Database

< Invasion of The Bee Girls
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A scientist from a government-funded research institute is found dead in a motel room and the State Department sends Neil Agar (William "Big Bill" Smith) to investigate. The medical examiner informs Agar and the local sheriff that the scientist died from a heart attack brought on by the only kind of over-exhaustion that happens in motel rooms.

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It's not a terribly suspicious death, but since the scientist did not have a history of heart problems Agar investigates a little further.

And then the town's body count starts to rise. All men. All heart attacks. All during the act of sex. Agar is convinced it has something to do with the research institute. He teams up with Julie Zorn, the institute's librarian (played by the gorgeous Playboy model Victoria Vetri) who informs him that a number of researchers at the institute have a reputation for promiscuity and that she herself was with the initial victim at the hotel the night he died.

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Agar's investigation eventually leads him to thinking there is some connection between the deaths and the mating habits of bees. For a film which is surprisingly well-written for what it is, this leap in logic is inexplicable. However, when he then goes to question Dr. Susan Harris, played by Anitra Ford (The Big Bird Cage), he notices pictures of bees near her laboratory. Since he was questioning scientists from the institute anyway, my guess is Agar's inexplicable leap to bees a few scenes earlier is an editing mistake rather than a script mistake.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who remembers the title, but Agar is right: there are connections to both the institute and bees. Institute scientist Dr. Harris is using radiation and genetically modified bees to turn women into monsters who seduce and kill. She's orchestrating an invasion of bee girls.

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Shocker, I know.

The bee-girl making sequence of the film is the sexy highlight. It starts with a bee sting, moves into the woman being covered in a creamy white substance (not that!). This substance attracts bees, which proceed to cover it in the most visually striking image of the film (except for the images of naked bee girls, of course). And the transformation ends with a girl-on-girl kiss with Dr. Harris that is so hot the surrounding bee-girl assistants expose their breasts in solidarity.

It just might be the best sci-fi transformation scene ever filmed.

Beyond the fun laboratory scene, the film is surprisingly funny and better written than we might expect. When discussing the sex-related death of their colleague, for example, one of the scientists quips, "Imagine that! Coming and going at the same time."

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OK, maybe it's not Shakespeare, but it's still fun.

Of course, nudity and sharp dialog aren't enough to save a film from being irredeemable sleaze, but luckily for Invasion of the Bee Girls, it also has a competent cast. William Smith (Black Samson) is his expected swaggering self. Victoria Vetri (Rosemary's Baby) is charming as the reservedly sexy librarian. And Anitra Ford is smoking hot even when she has clothes on.

There's something for everyone.

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A final positive worth mentioning is how homosexuality is portrayed in the film. I'm not talking about the girl-on-girl kiss which is played for titillation, but the relationship between a researcher and his lover Joe. Unlike many exploitation films of the 70s, the relationship is not played for laughs, but is taken seriously. The pair and their relationship don't play much of a role in the film, but it's there and is treated respectfully by Agar.

My only real complaint is that the film would have benefited from more of the bee girls. It's already a silly and sexy film, so why not go harder and include more of the latter? Sure there's a fair amount of sexy bee-girl action, but for a film called Invasion of the Bee Girls it plays more like a film called Investigating the Bee Girls.

So, maybe the film is not as much fun as it could have been, but that's OK. I'm glad it exists at all.


Rob McGee has written comedy and short stories for The American Bystander, Sammiches and Psych Meds, and a number of other funny places online and off. You can follow him on YouTube.

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