Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare had the elements to make a solid b(ee)-movie, but its a dull horror flick instead. Among the list of killer animal movies, such as Jaws or Alfred Hitchcock classic The Birds, there are surprisingly few revolving around killer bees. The most high profile would probably be 1978's The Swarm from Irwin Allen, the producer behind The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. The Swarm focuses on an outbreak of African killer bees in Texas and was a splashy, big-budget disaster movie.
Sadly, The Swarm suffered from an insipid screenplay and hammy acting, despite featuring a cast that includes heavyweights like Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, and Katharine Ross. Caine himself has since labelled it one of his worst movies, but would later re-teamed with Allen for dire sequel Beyond The Poseidon Adventure. While not the focus of the movies, bees played key roles in 1992 horror classic Candyman and My Girl, where the death of a certain main character due to bee stings traumatized a generation.
Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare is a 1995 TV movie starring Robert Hays (Airplane!) as Chad Ingram, who moves to a small California town with his wife and children. Their arrival coincides with that of the African killer bees sweeping across the U.S., who are seen killing a curious police officer in the opening scene. After some dry setup and character building, the second half finds the Ingram's trapped in their farmhouse by waves of very angry bees who flood in through the doorways and chimney, seemingly seeking revenge.
There was room for Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare to be fun, but the stilted dialogue and acting - aside from Dennis Christopher's (IT) over the top turn as a bee expert - make it a slog long before the siege kicks in. Even then, there's not much suspense to be found as Hayes and others block off doorways with towels and swat at the air. The movie is notable for an early appearance by young Ryan Phillippe (Shooter) as a teenager who blasts some hives with a shotgun, which leads to the farmhouse siege.
Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare isn't without its goofy charms, but its a fairly toothless nature run amok movie that doesn't even have much of a body count. The definitive killer bee movie has yet to be made, and Deadly Invasion: The Killer Bee Nightmare definitely isn't it.