Review of Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) by Craig W — 07 May 2012

Not nearly as campy as the title or variant covers and posters might suggest, this is for the most part a relatively straight-faced mystery thriller which just so happens to incorporate a ludicrous sci-fi twist.

In that respect, I was rather disappointed since I was expecting something of a more mondo nature. But to be fair, this is actually not a bad film at all. While the dialogue and performances aren't quite embarrassing enough to be laugh out loud funny, there's more than enough muted absurdity to keep the narrative entertaining.

Tough guy Smith clearly thinks he's acting in something of far greater worth, chewing his dialogue like a B movie Brando to occasionally chucklesome effect and, in the film's one stand-out exploitation moment, he visibly relishes kicking the asses of a bunch of would-be rapists following a completely unnecessary assault on the female lead which adds nothing to the plot and has absolutely no detectable effect on the characters involved.

The protracted ending depicting the transformation of an ordinary woman into a black-eyed bee girl is clearly the film's money shot and is hugely enjoyable for all its dreamy sci-fi trappings and ubiquitous techno-obsessions of the era. Not to mention of course the gratuitous nudity as the woman is coated erotically in some unnameable substance (beeswax perhaps?).

Fleetingly enjoyable in that "it-passes-90-harmless-minutes" kind of way, this is one of those filicks from which you can extract pleasure simply by keeping in mind that there's no way anything like it would be made today.