Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973)

A powerful cosmic force is turning Earth women into queen bees who kill men by wearing them out sexually. 

This puts the Bee in B-Movie. I think this movie was just an excuse for the director the film girls topless, but none the less he got a movie made.  Strange deaths start to happen in a small town, populated mostly by scientists. A government agent is sent to find out what is happening. Only men are dying, and from sexual exhaustion.

We soon find out that a group of women, who I guess are actually bees sorta, are having sex with the men and killing them, and then turning their wives/girlfriends into bees. I suppose to take over the world.

The movie looks awful, the film was very underexposed so scenes are very dark which makes it tough to see whats going on when half the movie takes place at night. Other than that nothing really sticks out as being terrible, the script of course is very laughable, which is a good thing. Apparently the original writer of the movie Nicholas Meyer, who is writing the next Martin Scorsese movie, sold the script and then it was changed alot to be a very campy movie, so much so he tried to get his name taken off of it. Who knows, maybe if they would have made it his way it could be a classic movie.

As I said earlier, it seems like just a way for the director to film girls naked, especially the scene where they show the transformation into a bee.  Its what you expect when it comes to these type of movies, it will make you laugh, but it is disappointing about how the movie looks.


When to Watch Rating: B-Movie Mania

Available on DVD and on Netflix

Vampire Circus (1972)

 

A village in Nineteenth Century Europe is at first relieved when a circus breaks through the quarantine to take the local's minds off the plague...

Vampire Circus is a 70's grindhouse film that falls short on what makes the old grindhouse films great. It starts out strong as the town people get fed up with Count Mitterhaus, as he has been killing all of the children in the town with the help of the seduced Anna. The town storms into his castle and after a small battle, a stake is driven into Count Mitterhaus's heart. It combines all the great attributes of the old grandhouse films.  Very fake but over the top violence, nudity for no reason,bad acting, comical visual effects and a ridiculous script.

Then the  movie slows down, it still has the bad acting and ridiculous script but when you do not have all of the elements continuing throughout the movie it gets tough to watch.

There are still some good parts throughout the movie. A panther attacking a group of travelers in the forest, two circus acrobats turning into bats and then back to humans, David Prowse (who is Darth Vader) as the strongman and of course the final fight scene.

In the end there just isn't enough to make you laugh and keep you entertained. It should have followed in the footsteps of movies like The Wizard of Gore and played to the strengths of what really makes these movies fun to watch.

When to Watch Rating: While Plunging Your Head In Boiling Water

Available on Netflix Instant View