TERROR OUT OF THE SKY (1978)
Article #1246 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 8-12-2004
Posting Date: 1-9-2005
Directed by Lee H. Katzin
Featuring Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Dan Haggerty, Tovah Feldshuh

When killer bees infiltrate a bee raising institute, the director must race against time to prevent the development of a deadly swarm.

Bees make good horror animals; the thought of being stung to death by a swarm of them does get to you on a gut level. Consequently, any killer bee movie will put you on edge at least a little. Nonetheless, I can’t really say that I’ve seen a killer bee movie that I would actually describe as “good” (though THE SWARM is entertaining in its own way). This TV-Movie was a sequel to THE SAVAGE BEES, which I thought was merely average. I thought this one was quite bad. I got very annoyed at the foolishness of some of the characters, the horrible dialogue, and the formulaic plot elements. The director of the institute refuses to share his knowledge with the authorities, and the fact that this undercuts his ability to stop the bees apparently does not occur to him. There’s also a by-the-numbers love triangle which is resolved in the most cliched of fashions. I also don’t have much respect for the woman who decides that the people most fit to undertake the perilous task of tracking down the killer bees is a troop of boy scouts. Another major problem I have is this; in order to save the townspeople at one point, the woman hides in a school bus (with the troop of boy scouts) and continually toots the horn to lure the bees towards the bus, saying that loud noises attract them. Then, after the bus is driven out of town, nobody can figure out how to lure the bees away from the bus. Why didn’t they just plant a boom box a distance away from the bus, crank up the volume, and lure them away? This is the type of sloppy plotting that I have little use for.