This made-for-television film is another of the nature-gone-wild thrillers that seemed so much in vogue in the 1970s.
A swarm of African killer bees descend on New Orleans during Mardi Gras having rampaged through South America already. Now, thanks to a freighter collision (or something), they have their sights set on the United States.
The movie is surprisingly straight-laced (for a film about killer bees) and bee antics are mostly absent for much of the running time except at the end when we finally get to see a swarm (you’ve probably seen bigger swarms in your back garden, to be honest).
Michael Parks gives a completely restrained performance. Ben Johnson is the Sheriff while Horst Buchholz is the only cast member who threatens to ham it up as a scientist and bee expert.
Sheriff Donald McKew
Ben Johnson Dr Jeff DuRand
Michael Parks Dr Rufus Carter
Paul Hecht Jeannie Devereaux
Gretchen Corbett Dr Jorge Meuller
Horst Buchholz Police Lieutenant
Bruce French Pelligrino
James Best Coast Guard Lieutenant
David L. Gray Coast Guard Chief
Richard Charles Boyle Freighter Boatswain
Eliott Keener Freighter Captain
Boardman O’Connor Deputy Churn
Don Hood Deputy Stilt
Bill Holliday Mrs Compher
Carol Sutton
Director
Bruce Geller
Related Posts
Swarm, The (1978) African killer bees are moving west and threatening to engulf Houston, Texas. Quick, call on entomologist Brad Crane (Michael Caine)…
Silent Running (1971) Set in the year 2008 (when 2008 was actually the future!), Silent Running revolves around a giant American Airlines Space Freighter…
Alex & The Gypsy (1976) Jack Lemmon looks tired and unappealing in this cynical and grubby film about the torturous relationship between low-rent bail bondsman…
Single Room Furnished (1966) Ironically, Jayne Mansfield tackled her first straight dramatic role in her final film here playing a girl of 18, a…
Smokey & The Bandit (1977) By the mid-1970s, it seemed like Burt Reynolds could do no wrong at the box office. With films like White…
Stir Crazy (1981) There was an improvisational air to much of the dialogue spouted by both Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy,…
Strangler, The (1964) A psychological thriller about an overweight paranoid schizophrenic hospital lab technician (Victor Buono) with low self-esteem brought on by his…
