And then...those characters are never mentioned again. There are many ways the world could end in real life. The Swarm is a 1978 American disaster–horror film about a killer-bee invasion of Texas.It was adapted from a novel of the same name by Arthur Herzog.Directed by Irwin Allen, the cast features Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, and Henry Fonda. The media hoopla surrounding killer bees fuel Hollywood to capitalize on the potential threat. That right there would be enough to power a taut, terrifying tale. In The Swarm, we see them cause two military helicopter crashes and multiple car accidents, and force a passenger train full of Marysville evacuees to derail and explode. The reality was that Africanized honey bees did, and still do, exist. 28 - High Plains Invaders (2009) The insects look cool, the script … not so much. We could get whacked by an asteroid or nuke…. I placed them in order of year released, from most recent to oldest. Google+. 0. 1 talking about this. Was there even a real threat from these insects or was it a case of sensationalized news reporting or even a hoax, like the Bigfoot craze? The man who brought African honey bees to South America was turned into a mysterious fiend who had “disappeared from sight” after “he turned killer bees loose”. WhatsApp. Of all the incredibly weird things to find in The Swarm, this one also stood out to me. It was just a matter of time, the newspapers claimed until the killer bees were at our doorsteps. While most of The Swarm is ostensibly invested in Crane, Slater, and their various associates’ frantic efforts to stop the bees’ relentless march to the nearest big city, which is Houston, the movie still finds time to inject even more pointless subplots. Dr. Krim, the venom specialist who’s presented as the world’s best hope for developing an antidote, not to mention Crane’s BFF, decides to use himself as a guinea pig to test his serum without telling anybody. The pop culture references to killer bees, along with news reports, just cemented in the minds of the people of the 1970s that Africanized honey bees posed a real threat to national security. This was my third killer-bee-flick in a row, back when the urge overtook me to watch some of those. Pinterest. See more ideas about tv guide, tv guide listings, tv. The killer bees are coming! The man who brought African honey bees to South America was turned into a mysterious fiend who had “disappeared from sight” after “he turned killer bees loose”. We follow these characters, get a feel for them, then the filmmakers pull the proverbial rug out from under us by having them die in such a prolonged, hideous way. A strong-willed woman not only dominates her family of California winegrowers, but also has a strange hold on a colony of bees in her vineyard. Twitter. In 1974, there was a made-for-TV movie called “Killer Bees”, starring Gloria Swanson, that aired as ABC’s Movie of the Week.A few years later, in 1978, the disaster action movie, The Swarm hit the big screen, starring Michael Caine. A few years later, in 1978, the disaster action movie, The Swarm hit the big screen, starring Michael Caine. The terrifying newspaper articles about killer bees and the threat they posed to people and the environment were downright scary in their descriptions of how the killer bee hybrids were on the verge of invading the United States and how they formed massive and vicious swarms that attacked and killed anything in its path. I guess you really can't blame him too much because there really hasn't been a good film dealing with killer bees. Putting your trust in science is a big one, but so is the nagging idea that —as stupidly entertaining as The Swarm can be—maybe every disaster doesn’t need its own disaster movie. Bee (Samara Weaving) is the main villainess in Netflix’s 2017 horror-comedy The Babysitter, as well as a redeemed character in the 2020 sequel The Babysitter: Killer Queen.She was the determined, tenacious, morbid, warped, murderous, amoral, hebephilac and very manipulative babysitter of 12-year-old Cole Johnson (the film's protagonist) and appeared to be … Then, one of the biggest arcs of the film’s first act—a sweet elderly love triangle involving Marysville’s school principal, its mayor, and a retiree (Olivia de Havilland, Fred MacMurray, and Ben Johnson)—ends soon after they board the train to escape the invasion. If you don’t die instantly by being stung a zillion times at once, there’s a side effect that makes you hallucinate a giant bee while you’re trying to recover—demonstrated most unintentionally hilariously by Helena Anderson, an Air Force doctor played by Katharine Ross (a few years post-The Stepford Wives), who at one point literally opens a door and finds a buzzing menace on the other side, as if it’d just stopped by to say howdy. The media hoopla surrounding killer bees fuel Hollywood to capitalize on the potential threat. Crane and Dr. Anderson somehow find time to develop a relationship, which sort of makes sense considering they’re trying to save the world together, but there’s also a very odd and shoehorned-in plot involving a pregnant woman (Patty Duke Astin) and her doctor (Alejandro Rey), who puts the moves on her even though her husband has just died in the Air Force base attack at the start of the film. It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from The New York Times. With Ben Johnson, Michael Parks, Paul Hecht, Gretchen Corbett. Directed by Curtis Harrington. But this “mutant species of African killer bees”—as the movie progresses, characters start referring to them simply as “Africans,” which would be problematic even if The Swarm didn’t have an all-white main cast—doesn’t seem too interested in flowers. And then...those characters are never mentioned again. With Africanized honey bees, the whole hive swarms to attack. With all this talk of murder hornets, our thoughts turned to the disaster movies of the 1970s that blatantly exploited that era’s own insect eco-terror: killer bees! 25 - Killer Bees (2008) one of 4 bee movies with this same title. It’ll Bee tense. Michael Caine, in full “slumming for dollars” mode, stars as entomologist Brad Crane, whose sudden appearance after a mass casualty event at a Texas Air Force facility immediately puts him at odds with General Slater (Richard Widmark). The Bees (1978) Black Swarm (2007) The Deadly Bees (1966) Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare (1995) Die Bienen – Tödliche Bedrohung (2008) Killer Bees (1974) When the Africanized hybrid honey bee entered our awareness in the 1970s, the bee was described as a killer bee (in Brazil, they called it the assassin). Released in the UK as Graveyard Tramps, the movie’s plot concerns a mad scientist who has engineered an army of female zom-bees who kill men by exhausting them through energetic sex.After the women are transformed into living-dead queen bees, their eyes become entirely black. All the news reports of the time explained that honey bees from Africa were taken to Brazil in the 1950s and a hybridization program was started. That said, the timeline in The Swarm is just one of many elements that don’t make a lot of sense. I thought of "Deadly Invasion" first because of the people in the farmhouse, but I didn't remember a schoolbus. They’ve also massacred thousands, though most of their body count comes courtesy of that nuclear power plant disaster we mentioned earlier. Campy 1970's horror films depicting attacking swarms of killer bees, coupled with news media hysteria, probably led people to believe that the world would be a much more dangerous place once the killer bees flew across the border. In the Sacramento region, the East Area Rapist (also known as the the Golden State Killer) was known for brutal, methodically planned attacks in which he … Reportedly, because they have so many natural enemies in Africa, African bees and hybrids as well are extremely defensive and combative about safeguarding their hive. Instead of preserving the desired traits in the bees, the hybrids acquired the supposed aggression of the African bees only on steroids, resulting in angry, aggres… In between, there was a reoccurring skit on Saturday Night Live called “Killer Bees.”. 29 - Glass Trap (2005) Radioactive ants trap … Will History blame me or the Bees? The story, little more than a thinly veiled stopgap to set up pearl-on-a-string style vignettes, and musical numbers, concerns an outbreak of, you guessed it, killer tomatoes. But The Swarm—specifically the home-viewing version, which is full of scenes excised from the box-office bomb theatrical cut and clocks in at over two and a half hours—is neither taut nor terrifying. The reports further added that the swarms of killer bees escaped the lab and were on the move…specifically north to the United States. Behold The Swarm! While the experts dither, the bees literally go to town, dive-bombing quaint nearby Marysville which is, unfortunately, gearing up for its annual flower festival. Killer Bees came out in the mid-1970s fad for Animal/Nature’s Revenge films that had been started by Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963) and continued with hits such as Willard (1971) and Frogs (1972), culminating in the massive success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975). The Best Movies of the 1970s Flickering Myth The 1970s – The Best Era In Cinema History? Because, first, they aren’t nearly as aggressive as the media made them out to be, and second, because they began breeding with the indigenous honey bees of the South … and these bees are much calmer and peace-loving insects. In 1974, there was a made-for-TV movie called “Killer Bees”, starring Gloria Swanson, that aired as ABC’s Movie of the Week. The goal was to create a more efficient honey producer, but, according to the news reports, something went horribly wrong. Directed by Bruce Geller. Made-for-TV horror film about a sheriff (Ben Johnson) having to deal with a swarm of African killer bees who have shown up just in time for Mardi Gras. Directed by Curtis Harrington, the cast includes Kate Jackson, Craig Stevens, John Getz, and Edward Albert. With all this talk of murder hornets, our thoughts turned to the disaster movies of the 1970s that blatantly exploited that era’s own insect eco-terror: killer bees! The goal was to create a more efficient honey producer, but, according to the news reports, something went horribly wrong. Celebrate New Year’s Eve aboard the S.S. Poseidon, and experience one of the standouts of the 1970s. However, The Towering Inferno, I find, is a much harder film to watch and its because of what you said above: The film seems to relish in getting us to know, then sympathize with certain characters only to have them die in all kinds of clever/hideous ways. Nooooo, we are subjected to a jaw-droppingly undignified death scene that sees multiple aging Oscar winners being flung around like rag dolls. Fads Horror Movies TV & Radio 1970s bees honey horror In Search Of insects Irwin Allen Killer Bees Mexico. Directed by Curtis Harrington. But it didn't age well, plus … The interbreeding apparently subdued the angry trait in the Africanized bees, resulting in another hybrid bee, but one that is much more chill. The film originally aired as the ABC Movie of the Week on February 26, 1974. Designed by Elegant Themes | Powered by WordPress, The Constitutional Convention – Day-by-Day Summary of the Convention, Joe Biden calls coronavirus an “incredible opportunity…to fundamentally transform the country”. The movie’s generous run time allows us to get to know several of the doomed characters—most of whom expire in subplots that get tons of attention, then are never mentioned again once they abruptly end. The First Memorial Day – Martyrs of the Race Course, WaPo’s Editorial Board: It’s Time to End Election Protections for Rural America, Gerald Walpin, inspector general fired by Obama, dies, Alexis de Tocqueville on “Democratic” Socialism, Allegheny County, PA still has 35,413 uncounted mail-in ballots, but elections staff is taking today off for “administrative work”, Joe Biden on Gender – “There are at least three” #BidenScience, Meet The Rioting Criminals Kamala Harris Helped Bail Out Of Jail, New York’s COVID checkpoints: Cops stationed at tunnels and bridges force drivers of vehicles from 35 hotspot states into 14-day quarantine as they scan plates. 1974 ) by plus … killer bees were at our doorsteps almost made the hive... In the Swarm hit the big screen, starring Michael Caine asteroid or nuke…, Craig Stevens, John,... 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