source: Terror Out of the Sky

TERROR OUT OF THE SKY is the 1978 sequel to the TV movie THE SAVAGE BEES. None of the cast members from that film return, but the story follows directly onwards and pulls the old trick of re-staging the climax of the prior movie with a new actress, Tovah Feldshuh, replacing the actress in the original. A new investigator in the form of Efrem Zimbalist Jr. shows up and discovers that some of the bees have survived and spread to some hives at a local research institute; even worse, they've been shipped off around the country, so he goes on a road trip to New Mexico to retrieve them before they get out into the wild. 'Grizzly Adams' himself, Dan Haggerty is also along for the ride and comes between the May to December pairing of Zimbalist and Feldshuh. Truth be told this is a lesser movie all round, more of a sappy drama than an against-the-clock thriller, and Feldshuh's simpering character is a poor inclusion indeed. It re-stages events from the original movie, swapping out a Volkswagen for a school bus in one instance, but it's only moderately convincing, with just a few scenes in which people get coated in a raging swarm of bees. The downbeat climax is a nice touch but overall this one's strictly average.

TERROR OUT OF THE SKY is the sequel to THE SAVAGE BEES. It begins with Jeannie Devereaux having a nightmare about the first film's absurd, football field finale. Somehow, Jeannie has magically transformed from Gretchen Corbett into Tovah Feldshuh! Meanwhile, at the National Bee Center, killer bees have mixed in with regular honeybees with tragic results. Enter Dr. David Martin (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). Martin arrives at the NBC just in time for an unwary hive technician to do the bee-sting bugaloo! The problem is quickly contained. Unfortunately, a shipment of killer bees has already been shipped from the lab! Thankfully, Jeannie's boyfriend, Nick Willis (played by bearded mountain, Dan Haggerty) is a pilot, and can fly David and Jeannie to the problem area. Too late! The bees have been entrusted to a hillbilly, who runs them around in his pickup truck! Much time is spent on useless palaver between the main characters, leading up to the little league baseball game finale. Let the swarming doom commence! Now, as preposterous as the ending was for the first film, this makes that one seem perfectly reasonable! After recruiting some boy scouts, Jeannie makes her last stand aboard a school bus, while an annoying marching band plays their last song! Ever! As glorious as this may sound, it results in one of the most tedious driving sequences ever filmed, followed by activity inside the bus that boggles the mind! When Martin introduces his solution to the onslaught, credulity is stretched into string cheeeze! All while Grizzly Adams looks on. WARNING: This movie contains imbecility so rarefied it could cause deep, cranial scarring!...

In this sequel to The Savage Bee's we find that a new breed of killer bee's has been bread at a research lab for the study of bee's. Unfortunately 3 of the queen bee's have been sent out to bee keeper's before it was known they were of the deadly verity it is up to Jeannie Devereux and David Martin (Tovah Feldshuh, Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) to get them back before they are added to the hives and swarm. With the help of Jeannie's pilot boyfriend Nick (Dan Haggerty) two of the queens are found and destroyed but they didn't reach the third in time. The swarm attack a 4th of July celebration trapping Jeannie and a pack of boy scouts in a bus. Its up to Nick and Dave to save the day.

I'm not sure if anyone noticed but the plot of Terror Out Of The Sky seems to have been lifted from the 50s science fiction classic Them. The only change is a different insect, bees instead of ants. Some nasty South American killer bees have escaped and scientists Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. and Tovah Feldshuh and her pilot ex-boyfriend Dan Haggerty are right on the case. In the same way the ants headed for Los Angeles to build a colony, the killer bees have decided to settle in a small New Mexico town where there is an Air Force base nearby, convenient for dealing with these winged six legged intruders. The cast truly just goes through the motions here. I'm not sure even the kids playing the Boy Scout troop trapped on a school bus really looked all that terrified. They were more scared of their paychecks not clearing.

call me crazy,but i enjoyed this movie.it won't win any awards or anything,but it is is entertaining and well paced.the acting is okay for this type of movie.it feels like a made for TV movie,but that's not necessarily a bad thing.from watching it,i got the impression it is a sequel,since they showed some flashbacks involving one of the main characters.i found out later that it is a sequel to "the Savage Bees".but it works well on its own,although i do plan on seeing the prequel sometime.if your looking for lots of tension and suspense,you won't find too much here,although there are one or two mildly suspenseful moments.i think the appeal of this movie is the likability of the characters.also it moves at a decent pace and isn't at all boring.i give "Terror Out of the Sky" 8/10

When a handler at the National Bee Centre (French) is overcome by a swarm of deadly South American killer bees, the institute's director (Zimbalist) and principal entomologist (Feldshuh) must locate the whereabouts of recent exports before they infiltrate hives throughout the country. Inferior sequel to "The Savage Bees" has a bee-grade cast by comparison, and a lukewarm climax in which a group of boy scouts are trapped in a school bus with Feldshuh's character, already haunted by the memories of her last encounter (as Gretchen Corbett in the first film) with the black & gold assassins that now engulf the bus as air quickly runs out. This scenario actually presents some amusing possibilities for a twisted mind – is that sexual tension between young Eisenmann and Feldshuh, or just misguided execution? Grizzly Adams (aka Dan Haggerty) is the sensitive, jilted pilot boyfriend trying to compete with Zimbalist's affections for his former squeeze, putting aside his differences in unheralded chivalry as the trio fly from one town to the next in search of the next catastrophe. If the Feldshuh-Zimbalist-Haggerty sandwich was any more cordial, it would surely be fairy bread, and that's the substance of which this film is made. The "Terror" is indeed out of the sky, and it appears, nowhere to be seen in this film. Aside from the make-up applied to French as the first victim, there's very little inspiration in special effects or action sequences. Experienced director Katzin seems content to allow the events to unfold without cohesive plotting, meandering pointlessly to a bittersweet ending in which our celebrated threesome, sadly, become a pair. It's a shame that a taut, suspenseful film like "The Savage Bees" serves as the patent to such a bland, lethargic re-production. There's little to recommend here, suffice to say that proceedings are unlikely to offend in any way such is the wholesome, sedentary treatment afforded to this sub-standard sequel.

TV movie about a bee attack in the USA. 1978 was a big year for bee attacks, we got this film and Irwin Allen's cinema released - The Swarm - all in one year! The Swarm wins hands down! If you are big on 70s TV science fiction you might find a couple of things of interest in Terror Out Of The Sky... Firstly the director of this TV movie is actually very talented as, in 1975, he directed the two hands down best episodes of TV's Space 1999 - Breakaway and The Black Sun. However, his talents are less on display here. Secondly, the most talkative kid on the bus is played by Ike Eisenmann who had just appeared in the short lived cult series - The Fantastic Journey (1977). I am guessing he defined his time on Terror Out Of The Sky as another fantastic journey? TOOTS can hardly be called a classic but it might make an okay movie experience if you still want more bee attacks after watching the much bigger budget - The Swarm (1978).

Moviecut—Terror Out of the Sky

source: Terror Out of the Sky