Invasion of the Bee Girls. Thatâs a movie Iâve wanted to see ever since I spotted it in video rental stores.
It was always tucked away in the back, high up on the shelf, practically taunting me with its VHS box. Alas, when I was still seeing it in video stores, I wasnât mature enough to watch it.
But what is Invasion of the Bee Girls?
Itâs a sci-fi exploitation film written by Nicholas Meyer and directed by Denis Sandersâtwo very notable names. If youâre a Star Trek fan, you might recognize Nicholas Meyer as the guy behind the best Star Trek films. He wrote and directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He also wrote, but did not direct, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Invasion of the Bee Girls was the first movie he ever wrote.
Denis Sanders, meanwhile, is something of a cult figure in cinema. His most famous film is probably Shock Treatmentâa wild movie, and if you havenât seen it, you absolutely should. He also did the screen adaptation of The Naked and the Dead and directed the documentary Soul to Soul, about American musicians performing in Ghana. Itâs one of the best music documentaries of the â70s.
Invasion of the Bee Girls wasnât the last thing Sanders directed, but it was probably the last movie of his to get a theatrical release. And what a movie.
The Premise
Being an exploitation film, thereâs a lot of nudity. Pretty much every woman in this film shows her boobs, and there are a few butts. No genitals, thoughâthis isnât an X-rated film. But it does have quite a few triggering elements, and you probably donât want to watch it around children. Or teenagers, for that matter.
Now, the premiseâwell, thatâs a doozy.
The film takes place in a small town full of scientists, where men are suddenly dropping dead. The cause of death? Exhaustion. Specifically, theyâre dying in the throes of passionâright in the middle of sex, their hearts just give out.
The U.S. government assigns the FBI to the case. Mind you, they only send one agent, which tells you how much of a priority they considered it at first. But given the titleâInvasion of the Bee Girlsâyou can probably guess whatâs behind these mysterious deaths.
Thatâs not a spoiler. If the key plot point is in the title, it doesnât count as a spoiler. A good portion of the film is spent with investigators trying to figure out who is killing these men and how theyâre doing it.
The Gender Subtext
Some say this movie is nothing more than an excuse to gawk at boobs. I disagree.
In fact, the movie itself explains its own subtextâand itâs actually pretty interesting. In less exploitative hands, this could have been a truly compelling film. The core idea here is about how men fear the thing they desire most. They desire sex, but they also fear it will kill them. Specifically, heterosexual men desire the love of a woman, but they fear that a woman will suck the life out of themâliterally and figuratively.
Iâm not saying thatâs a rational fear. Iâm saying thatâs what this movie is about.
And hereâs something funny: While watching, I realized this premise wouldnât work if the genders were reversed. You couldnât have a movie where women keep dropping dead after sex with menânot in this style, at least. If you flipped the genders, it wouldnât be science fiction anymore. It would be real life.
Women do die at the hands of men, often in the context of intimate violence. And the scene that triggered this thought for meâtrigger warningâwas one where a female character is sexually assaulted by three men. Sheâs almost raped, and the film plays it off as just another plot device. The male hero swoops in, saves the day, and thatâs that.
The fact that sexual assault was such a common, almost casual trope in films from the â50s, â60s, and â70s speaks volumes about rape cultureâthen and now. And that makes the whole premise of Invasion of the Bee Girls⊠well, strange.
The Lesbian Subtext
One thing that stood out to me is the filmâs very real lesbian subtext. Or rather, not even subtextâitâs practically text.
The Bee Girls are heavily implied to be lesbians. They hunt down men, essentially to steal their seed. And, of course, in classic pulp sci-fi logic, this movie suggests that you could just flip a switch to make a woman a lesbian. Because, you know, science fiction.
This ties back to an interesting discussion I once heard: If a woman is walking through the woods, would she rather encounter a bear or a man? A lot of women would say the bear, because at least the bear isnât malicious. Thatâs the kind of fear this movie plays withâexcept, of course, from a male perspective.
Yes, women can kill men, and yes, women do commit acts of intimate violence. But society doesnât condition us to think of women as threats the way it conditions us to see men as threats. Iâm not saying thatâs right or wrongâIâm saying thatâs just how it is.
And I bet there are plenty of women who, if they could, would turn off their attraction to men entirely. Some do, especially after experiencing trauma. But desire is a powerful thing.
And I canât believe Iâm talking about all of this in the context of Invasion of the Bee Girls.
Why This Matters
This is a dumb movie. It was not meant for deconstruction.
And yet, I genuinely believe that throwaway films like thisâthe ones designed purely for titillationâare the ones that need deconstruction the most. Even 50 years later, they tell us so much about the world we live in now.
The boys who grew up watching Invasion of the Bee Girls? Theyâre the ones in power now. Theyâre our politicians, our decision-makers. This is the world they were raised in, and for many of them, itâs the world they want to return to.
And honestly? Weâre not that far removed from the world of Invasion of the Bee Girls. I just watched it on Amazon Prime.
Mind you, Iâm probably one of the few people watching it now and actually thinking about it. But thatâs the thing, isnât it?
We live in a world shaped by gendered violence. Invasion of the Bee Girls is a fantasy about gendered violenceâbut flip the script, and itâs no longer fantasy. Itâs just reality.
The 1970s, when this movie was made, was a time when cultural norms around gender and sex were being challengedâheterosexuality, monogamy, male authority in the household. Did we go too far in some respects? Maybe in the sense society back then didnât value consent.
Until very recently, we didnât even talk about consent. When I was in school, sex ed didnât cover it. Now that Iâm a fatherâa father of a daughterâI talk about consent all the time.
So what does Invasion of the Bee Girls really say? It speaks to the fear that desire leads to death. And by the end of the movie? Heterosexuality reigns supreme. The social order is preserved. The male protagonist gets to have his cake and eat it too.
Is Invasion of the Bee Girls a good movie? No. Is it worth watching? No. But is it worth critiquing? Absolutely.
And thatâs why I find it fascinating, even though I donât recommend it.