Thursday, October 22, 2015

The Deadly Bees (1966)

Director: Freddie Francis

Writers: Robert Bloch, Anthony Marriott, Gerald Heard

Composer: Wilfred Josephs

Starring: Suzanna Leigh, Frank Finlay, Guy Doleman, Catherine Finn, John Harvey, Michael Ripper, Anthony Bailey, Tim Barrett, James Cossins, Frank Forsyth, Katy Wild

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Hives of horror! - Excited by the smell of fear, they inflict their fatal stings!

Plot: Trouble strikes when an exhausted pop singer, sent on a vacation to a farm, realizes that the farm's owner grows deadly bees.



My rating: 3/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

On one hand I feel like a 3 out of 10 is too low because the production values and acting are good as is the story but FUCKING HELL is it boring.  It took several tries to finish it.  The first and last fifteen minutes are fine but it's that middle hour that will take you down hard which seems hard to do considering it's only 82 minutes long.  I reckon it's the story and the direction or editing that drags for so long.  It's a damn shame because it looks and feels like a good British horror at the peak of 60s British horror.  The band at the beginning of the film is The Birds (with Ron Jones on guitar).  The Legend Films DVD has a great looking anamorphic widescreen print but there are no extras.  I'd love to hear if this picture had a troubled production or something to explain the dreadfully dull film's midsection.

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