Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) - Karmode Reviews

*NB: This unpublished and hereto unseen review was written many years ago for Exposed Magazine’s June 2023 edition. Karmode insists "spineless" editor Joe Food blacklisted him from publication after "cowing to the will of philistinic money-grubbing advertisers", although Food insists he could not have used the piece because he received it unfinished over a week past deadline. Records align with Food.

50 years is a really long time. A 50-year-old person is well on their way to being dead, a 50-year-long marriage is well overdue a bloody murder, and if you’re a raunchy soft-core sci-fi flick that came out 50-years-ago, there’s a good chance nobody has a clue you exist. But that can’t be said for Invasion of the Bee Girls, which celebrates 50 years since release this June and is still as unfaltering memorable as the time you hit that dog with your car.

The movie opens as every film should, with a string of bizarre coital fatalities. Special Agent Neil Agar (William Smith - no, not that one) must first investigate the deaths with help from magnificently moustachioed Sheriff Peters (Cliff Osmond). But when a local government-sponsored research facility is linked, Agar must team up with the facility’s in-house librarian (Victoria Vetri) to infiltrate a series of strange experiments and take down a gaggle of scantily-clad killers.

Cinema has long adored the bee. Whether they’re tools of murder in The Wicker Man (2006), livestock to be exploited in Honeyland (2019), or symbols of repressed sexual individualism in Bee Movie (2017), the humble bumble has been captivating, disturbing, and enriching audiences since day dot. (Or should I say, day stripe? You know - like a bee!) In Invasion of the Bee Girls, the bees are utilised by filmmaker Denis Sanders in a uniquely contradictory way; first anthropomorphised, given the form of unrealistically beautiful 1970’s glamour models, and then dehumanised, by being forced to strip naked and having zero lines of dialogue. It’s a brave creative decision which drives home the film’s central message: that women, though silent and ultimately defeatable, are strong enough to murder and on a level with winged insects. It’s a message made especially pertinent through Sanders’ titillating direction, which I am surprised did not generate any Oscars buzzz at the time. (Get it? Buzz! Like bees that go buzz!)

If, for whatever reason, you’ve never watched Invasion of the Bee Girls, you can join me on Friday 9th of June in Endcliffe Park for a uniquely immersive outdoor screening. I’ll be streaming the full film on my new iPad from under a hornets nest I’ve placed in the parkour area.

Footnote: I’d like to use this platform to publicly register my concern for the dubious results at the 2023 Exposed Awards, in particular my failure to win or even be shortlisted in the Local Cinematic Writer category. I outright reject the editor’s assertion that a) no such category exists and b) that if it did it would be won comfortably by Cal Reid.