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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: February 23rd, 2016.
Director: Alfredo Zacarias
Cast: John Saxon, Angel Tompkins, John Carradine
Year: 1978
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The Movie:
Alfredo Zacarias, the same man behind Demonoid, directs 1978's The Bees which, as you probably could have guessed, is a movie about bees. But it's a very different movie about bees than The Bee Movie, even if it is a B-movie. Ha!
Dr. Miller (Claudio Brook) is the man in charge of an American led agricultural research center located in Brazil. Here he's been experimenting with bees, trying to crossbreed the aggressive African bee with a more docile species in the hope that his efforts will make it easier to harvest honey without being attacked. But when the son of a local farmer is killed while trying to steal honey from the aggressive little buggers, the townspeople burn the place to the ground killing Miller in the process, completely unaware that their actions have just unleashed the bees that were being used in his experiments.
Miller's beautiful young wife, Sandra (Angel Tompkins), steals away one of the queen bees and a worker bee or two before heading back to New York City where she delivers the specimens to her uncle, Dr. Sigmund Hummel (John Carradine) and his associate Dr. John Norman (John Saxon). They've been involved in the same project that Miller was spearheading but soon enough, they're in trouble with three bad dudes (Delroy White, Roger Cudney, and Chad Hastings) who are hoping to make some easy money of the lucrative honey market. These guys have been paying off the powers that be in order to get those bees into the country where they're hoping to cash in quick, but of course, they don't know how dangerous those bees really are…
A tale of science gone made and nature run amuck, The Bees is pretty goofy stuff but so too is it a lot of fun. Plenty of people suffer the wrath of the titular bees on screen, but it's never convincing enough to really generate any real lasting scares. The film's low budget is obvious from start to finish, look out for some pretty obvious stock footage inserts used throughout the movie in an attempt to add scale to the modest roots. The effects in which the bees swarm all over the human characters are clearly done with cheap optical superimpositions and while some of the ideas behind the attack scenes are eerie enough, the execution is just plain goofy and never convincing.
On top of that, the acting is nothing if not questionable. Saxon does okay here but Carradine can't seem to help but overact at every given opportunity. Tompkins doesn't fare any better while White, Cudney and Hastings all play their stereotypes as just that - stereotypes.
Having said all of that, the movie is fun. It moves at a fast pace and entertaining (though often for all the wrong reasons). It features a delightfully inappropriate score that just adds to the movie's goofy tone and hey, we even get to see John Saxon do a bit of kung-fu.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Vinegar Syndrome brings The Bees to Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in a new 2k scan taken from the original 35mm negative. There are some shots heavy with effects that don't look so detailed but everything else really does look excellent. Print damage is little more than small white specks now and then while colors look great. Black levels are also fine and skin tones quite good. This looks really nice in HD actually, the picture has very good depth and texture and is free of authoring/transfer problems like compression artifacts or noise reduction.
Audio chores are handled by an English language DTS-HD Mono track. No alternate language options or subtitles are provided. There's good clarity here, nice range and balance and at times some noticeable depth. There are no problems with any hiss to note but there is some occasionally distortion noticeable in the higher pitched dialogue here and there. Nothing all that serious or distracting but it's there. Otherwise, things sound just fine.
The main extra on the disc is an eleven minute video interview with Alfredo Zacarias who speaks quite candidly about making this picture. Here he shares some stories about the different cast and crew members he worked with on the picture, using real bees on the set and some of the difficulties that entailed, shooting on location and some alternate footage shot for a different release of the feature.
Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the movie, static menus and chapter selection. It's also worth noting that the cover insert artwork for this release is reversible. As this is a combo pack release, we also get a DVD version of the movie with identical extra features.
The Final Word:
The Bees is a lot of good goofy fun - never short on entertainment value! VS have done a great job bringing the film to Blu-ray with some fun extras and an excellent presentation.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
