Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare (1995 TV Movie) User Reviews

Crappy movie, but....

[dpful · 5/10 · 19 January 2009]

I WAS IN THIS MOVIE! As a teenager, a friend got me and my bandmates hired to play in the band that played at the outside wedding reception that the bees attacked! That's me in the red vest playing guitar and running into the house. That dork they showed playing lead guitar was dubbed in later.

Highlights were: Meeting Mr. Hays (I'm a fan of airplane), who was really nice to us musicians as he had a hobby of building custom guitars, and either dated or was married to a famous 80's rocker.

The Bee wrangler was nice and explained at great length how the queenless actor-hive had to be perpetually replenished. A bee vomited a blob of honey on my bandmates leather sleeve and I ate it.

It rained during the day and the guitar I used got wet and I felt it had gotten a little warpy- that very night I had a gig at the bar (snuck in as I wasn't 21), and I threw the guitar off the stage and smashed it at the climax of the show.

I saw the movie and liked looking for myself and the tunnel scene.

Note to all movie watchers- movies rule when your in them, no matter how bad they are.

Not good.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 11 September 2008]

Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare is set in the small Californian town of Blossom Meadows where Chad (Robert Hays) & Karen Ingram (Nancy Stafford) along with their three children have recently moved to after buying a local farmhouse & apple orchard. Also moving into Blossom Meadows are far more unwelcome African killer Bees that are sweeping across the US, although essentially the same as the common European Bee they are much, much more aggressive & attack in thousands. Chad soon realises that the primary nest is in his apple orchard & after local teenage idiot Tom Redman (Ryan Phillippe) shoots it with a shotgun the killer Bees get very upset & attack the nearby farmhouse where the Ingram family barricade themselves in as the killer Bees swarm outside trying to get in & sting everyone to death...

Co-written & directed by Rockne S. O'Bannon this is yet another nature runs amok tale complete with some flavour of the month environmental message. The film opens with some outdated (since this was made in 1995 outdated by almost fifteen years) text about the advance of the African killer Bee across the US & that 'this COULD be a true story' although considering the following eighty odd minutes on reflection that's a real LOL moment. Killer Bee films are rarely any good, I point you towards efforts such as Bees (1998) & Killer Bees! (2002) although there are one or two good ones around such as The Deadly Bees (1967) & The Savage Bees (1976). Unfortunately Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare is one of the crap ones, the pace is slow, the plot is stupid even for a film about killer Bees & the Bees are quite passive here & not as scary or threatening as they should be(e). I just see these Bees which are presented as they are in reality (no mutations or genetic experiments gone wrong) as no real threat & I don't understand why they would surround a house & then spend all night trying to kill the people inside, there's no explanation for it other than they are killer Bees. Some of the plot doesn't make any sense like the way these Bees manage to disable the phone lines, how did they manage that exactly? There's a shot of them crawling over the phone line but not 'doing' anything to it that would account for the phones going dead. Also when the Bees do get inside the house they don't really attack anyone inside anyway so what's the point?

This is basically an isolated location cut off from civilisation with stranded human beings trying to survive some sort of creature or threat type film with little in the way of a credible threat. The film is slow & the first three quarters of the film is very talky with lots of very forced speeches about Bees & killer Bees by all sorts of Bee experts & Government officials, who would have thought the ordinary Bee could be so dull! At one point some Bee expert giving some Bee speech says that Bees are prepared to die to defend themselves since when they sting something they die but that got me thinking do Bees actually know that they will die if they use their stings? I wouldn't have thought so, why would they know? If they did know would they really sting something? Who knows but it's a more interesting topic than this film. Bees are not really scary & this film isn't scary either & it's all rather dull predictable stuff.

Made-for-telly this looks pretty cheap although it's reasonably well made, there's no CGI work or special effects. The most notable thing about this film is that it was one of Ryan Phillippe's earliest roles & he has since gone to bigger & better things in Hollywood.

Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare is a pretty poor killer Bee film that tries to stick to reality in the way it presents it's Bees which just doesn't work at all, a really slow moving dull made-for-telly 'Creature Feature' that has no redeeming features that I could see.

Shows how IMMATURE society is

[petersgrgm · 5/10 · 16 January 2008]

I saw Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare the first time it was on TV, February 28, 1995; it was on again in August, 1997, but I thought once was enough. The movie showed just how ignorant and stupid too many Americans are. Not only are they ignorant of the killer bees. Too many Americans believe in nonsense-meaningless stereotypes! Chad Ingram represents the hero father, as if EVERY dad has to match up to that image, which is not true. Karen represents the archetypal suburban mom; Tracy and Lucy are the equally ignorant daughters. Though these killer bees are only partly understood at the present, it is unlikely that they would go so far as to travel in CLOUDS and surround the Ingram home completely, much less work their way INSIDE and cut off electricity and telephone service to boot! Yet so many Americans are so ignorant to BELIEVE that such is likely to happen! By the same token, many Americans believe that all persons should match up to the stereotypes that the Ingrams show, that all the earth imitate LORE instead of reflecting the holiness of God! So, having seen that flick once, that suffices to make me realize that Amercian society has a lot of growing up to do.

So bad, it's hysterical!

[scs0 · 27 September 2001]

This movie was so bad that it was actually funny. Here are some examples:

1) Fearing being stung to death, the family continues wearing loose and unbuttoned clothing for unknown reasons.

2) The father bundles up with layer after layer of clothing to run to the Jeep and drive for help. He walks out onto the porch and proceeds to stand and swat the bees (that can no longer sting him) for at least a minute.

3) The jeep won't start! The reason? The bees were in the air filter!

4) The son is in the attic and spraying the bees down with a hose that his friend is feeding him. The son is pumping gallon after gallon of water into the attic. Since he was standing on the wet drywall instead of the wooden joists, he falls through the floor into a "locked" room. His friend, instead of opening the door, trembles in fear and the son never even yells for him to open the door.

5) The reason he was "locked" in the room? Earlier the father pushed a towel underneath the door from the hallway. If that's not bad enough, the door opens into the bedroom, not the hallway.

6) After abandoning the house through an underground passage, the father nearly takes the head off one of the other people with an axe.

These people were so stupid that a pervious script probably had them setting the house on fire while they were still inside to kill the bees. Seriously, if you love to yell at idiots on TV then watch this movie at any cost! You'll have a blast yelling at these fools!

Can they bee any lamer?

[Sandcooler · 1/10 · 28 July 2006]

Usually when you put killer bees in your movie, you actually let them kill someone and not just fly around being stopped by sweaters and sheets of paper. Anyway, some farm is being infested with bees and some guy tries to stop them with a gun. For some mysterious reason, this doesn't work and the bees head for a random house to cause well, nothing really.

You know, I don't see how these bees can even be called killer bees. When you're locked in a room surrounded by thousands of these things, I'd say dying is the least you can do. Hell, even regular bees could mess you up good in that situation. But no, as long as you can move your arm like a moron you'll always be safe. They can't even kill a little girl who is ALLERGIC TO BEE STINGS! Laziest damn bees I've ever seen. Very boring movie.

There are not many things you could do to make this movie worse

[Russ-72 · 2/10 · 29 April 2000]

There are not many things you could do to make this movie worse. This movie was so bad, I couldn't believe it. It wasn't scary at all, the acting was bad and so was the story, the special effects, the characters, even the title was ridiculous. If there was a book. I believe, they invented the movie while they produced it. Whoever you are that you read this: If you haven't seen this movie, don't watch it. Carnosaurus is a much better movie than the Killer Bee nightmare. At least those dinosaurs could kill someone. In contrary to those bees, not one of those morons died, even though I wished so badly for it :-(

volkomen kut

[leen-2 · 2/10 · 7 March 1999]

I don't know where to start. This movie is the worst I've seen in a long time. Volkomen kut. I mean, c'mon, this is ridiculous! Those bees were even less deadly than my grandma in an advanced stage of Alzheimer's disease.

I've got only three words for this movie: Volkomen Kut. Well, that's two, actually.

Asinine storyline, not scary, bad acting

[tallguy62 · 1/10 · 27 August 2007]

Horrible, horrible made-for-TV garbage. I happened to catch the last hour of this on some silly cable channel. As the son of a beekeeper, I am a bit of an authority on bees.

Anyone who knows anything about bees knows that you never swat at them, but that's all that the actors did throughout this entire movie. I kept hoping that Robert Hays' character would get killed for being so stupid, but that never happens.

For a supposedly horrifying movie, there was no horror. It was not the least bit scary. I could never sit through it again, it was so bad. Don't waste any time with this one.

Awful made for TV movie

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 25 June 2016]

I expected nothing from this film, and I got nothing. The simple fact that it's a made for TV movie is enough to render any excitement about the prospect of killer bees redundant. There is no gore. No violence. No swearing. No nudity. None of those. So what do we have? A tepid thriller, the first half of which includes some deadly-dull character building, interspersed with some bee attacks (in one funny scene the bees are obviously glued in patches to the actors - this special effect hasn't been improved on since Fulci did it with maggots in CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD).

Then it's the dull house-under-siege-by-bees which churns out recycled action from tons of other films. The bees come down the chimney, just like the birds did in, uh, THE BIRDS. The survivors hide in the basement, just like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The insects mass and attack the family in their home, just like the spiders did in ARACHNOPHOBIA. But at least ARACHNOPHOBIA was funny, and cheesy in a good way.

This is just boring, predictable nonsense. The actors barely act. The only reason to watch this film is for the unintentionally funny scenes when a boy falls through an attic floor, when the father uses an axe like Jack Nicholson in THE SHINING, a hilarious moment when a boy shotguns a number of bee hives and the numerous bee attacks, where people scream and wave their arms around a lot for no reason. Otherwise, don't bee fooled into watching this atrocious rubbish.

family moves to small town and is terrorized by a nest of dangerous bees in their home.

[cellosara · 6/10 · 10 August 2005]

Actually, I have seen this movie and even more, I was cast as an extra when they filmed it at my high school. It was kind of fun to see how things work behind the cameras. The finished product was just fantastic! I thought they did a very good job in locations and things like that. It was pretty cool to see my home-town depicted as a California community, even though I live a time zone away. My friends and I had a good time picking out where we were and how many times we appeared in the film. It was so much fun! I think the acting was perfect for a made for TV movie and the filming locations they used were utilized incredibly well. It gives movies a whole new aspect after you have spent time on the set. If you like thrillers, and b-type movies, give it a shot!

Classic horror 😂

[mutum-378-411645 · 5/10 · 14 January 2022]

So I remember watching this movie back in the 90's. It follows some classic horror traits.... Kissing or exposing body parts means you'll be next. Imagine a teen slasher but with bees

Entertaining, I've always enjoyed this movie.

Could have used a little work...

[CeltLady · 10/10 · 10 January 2000]

The movie, Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare lacked a lot in the way of entertainment. That is unless you really like bees, which I don't. The bees seemed more intelligent than the main characters which is your first clue of where the movie is headed. If the purpose of this movie was to raise my awareness of the migration of Killer Bees or to alert the viewer of the danger, it fell much too short. I wasn't frightened at all nor alarmed in the least little bit. <yawn>

The only thing I can say about the movie is the actors did the best they could with what they had. Dennis Christopher (Beauchamp) was the only colorful character on the show but he appeared for only a few minutes and his prophecies of doom were totally rushed over and ignored. Dennis Christopher presented yet another wonderful performance in a movie unworthy of his talents. Too bad they didn't feature the film around Beauchamp instead of the local residents - DC might have been able to save it.

Other than that you can be grateful at least that the spoiled boys got what they deserved in the end.

Most favored quote of the movie: Dennis Christopher calling the waitress Darlin' with a bit of southern drawl.

Memorable killer bee film.

[Jack the Ripper1888 · 25 July 2002]

Yet again, another one of those movies has returned. A film with the scenario of "Killer-animal(s)-stalks-people-as-they-struggle-to-survive". Using killer bees for the basis of this film, DEADLY INVASION begins with a head-scratcher of a message telling us that this film is based on something that MAY have actually happened.

Robert Hays, Nancy Stafford, Ryan Phillipe, and Dennis Christopher are the stars of this film that follows one family's struggle to survive against the deadly swarm while trapped inside their desolate farm house. I really enjoyed the film. I felt that it was very well put together and was pretty good. Not worthy of any awards or anything, but entertaining nonetheless. DEADLY INVASION is a film that is memorable in the genre, but otherwise, it is not. DEADLY INVASION gets 3/5.

Oh, and to everyone that complains that this movie is humorous, if you want humor, scroll to the bottom of this page and read the comment written by the annonymous user who calls this film two words that don't exist: Volkomen Kut?? Go ahead, read it...you will laugh yourself silly.

Good film!

[Movie Nuttball · 10/10 · 19 August 2005]

Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Robert Hays, Nancy Stafford, Ryan Phillippe, Gina Philips, Gregory Gordon, Dennis Christopher, Danielle von Zerneck, Michael A. Nickles, Whitney Danielle Porter, Jeff Johnson, Mindy Lawson, Donré Sampson, Carolyn Hennesy, Thomas E. Jacobsen, Thom Dillon, Anthony Leger, Jenniffer Buckalew, Douglas Patrick, and Jerry Penacoli! The acting by all of these actors is very good. I was surprised to see the beautiful Danielle von Zerneck in this picture! The special effects and thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like Robert Hays, Nancy Stafford, Ryan Phillippe, Gina Philips, Gregory Gordon, Dennis Christopher, Danielle von Zerneck the rest of the cast in the film, Action, Mystery, Thrillers, Horror, Dramas, and interesting Bee films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!

Pure Genius

[Freebasedog · 4 September 2000]

This is one of the finer works to come out of American cinema in the 1990's, and I am only happy to see it was not forgotten. For many years I felt that I had the only copy in existence having taped it from television in 1995, however it seems that this film that was shunned by North American video and theatrical attention has found a new audience overseas. I've not seen such brilliant suspense and drama since vintage Hitchcock and I'm afraid we will never again see films of this high class in the next millenium.

Bees + Phillippe = Excellence

[LittleMonster · 10/10 · 10 March 2002]

While this movie lacked in terms of the Three Elements (vulgarity, violence, and nudity), it definitely made up for with intense killer bee stock footage and Ryan Phillippe. Being that Deadly Invasion was intended for TV viewing, one should go in realizing that they won't be getting much, if any, of the Three Elements. This lack of quantity does not make the movie suffer in quality at all. The random yet eerie footage of bee swarms kept me on edge, and Ryan Phillippe blew me away with his badass on the brink of tears attitude. A noteworthy scene depicted Tom (Ryan Phillippe) reacting to his friend's fall through the insulation in the attic. Truly a moving scene that left me in suspense. It all really comes together in a feel good way at the end, and it becomes evident why Ryan Phillippe and bees are so popular today.

Ever seen THE TOMORROW PEOPLE: THE CULEX EXPERIMENT

[JusHowes · 25 February 2000]

This movie is similar to the serial of Tomorrow People: THE CULEX EXPERIMENT (Except Culex fools around with bees instead of mosquitos). This movie lacked entertainment. Three words describe: GOOD, BAD, and REALLYBAD. (I know it's two words, okay!)