Back in June, I called The Savage Bees (1976) “the best killer bee movie I’ve seen.” Back in the day, others must have liked it, too, because two years later it got a sequel, Terror Out of the Sky. This one is not as good as the original; however, it’s still entertaining on an even smaller scale than that one.
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It’s a true sequel, with recurring characters and a continuation of the story, although Jeannie Devereux was so traumatized by events in The Savage Bees, that she’s taken the appearance of a different actor. Instead of Gretchen Corbett, Jeannie is played by Tovah Felsdhuh. She now works for the National Bee Center, odd considering she has nightmares about her previous experience.
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Some sequels recreate key scenes from their predecessors, except on a larger scale. Here, Jeannie doesn’t just drive a VW Beetle covered with bees into a place to kill them, she drives a school bus full of Boy Scouts into a place to kill them. It’s ridiculous that they’re in the situation, though. If a swarm of killer bees is nearby, why would she lead the Scouts into the woods to look for them in the first place?
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I suppose it’s so they can run to the school bus for safety. Things like this happen in a movie where the band at a small-town baseball game continues playing after being notified that the killer bees are attracted to color and noise. Thank goodness the intermittent honking of the bus horn is louder than the band, its yellow color brighter than their uniforms.
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It’s silly fun; the nonsense enjoyable instead of aggravating. Plus, Jeannie is part of an interesting soap opera love triangle. It must be a real Sophie’s choice for her, having to choose between David Martin (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), a man 30 years her senior, and Nick Willis (Dan Haggerty), Grizzly Adams himself.
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Spoiler alert, Nick has the edge. He’s a pilot and flies them all over the country in his little airplane to track three queen bees that survived from the first movie. You see, they couldn’t get commercial flights because… it’s 4th of July weekend. These disasters always happen at the most inopportune times.
Terror Out of the Sky is available on Blu-ray from KL Studio Classics. You can also visit the TV Terror Guide: 70's TV Movies playlist at ClassicHorrors.Club TV on YouTube to watch it.
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