The Swarm Reviews

THE SWARM is a B movie in every sense of the term. Somehow disaster-movie king Allen convinced top Hollywood stars (including five Oscar winners) to appear in this nonsense. Caine is an entomologist who's trying to stop a swarm of killer bees as they attack Houston. General Widmark wants to use the military on the tiny creatures (actually dots painted onto film, the ultimate in cheap special effects), but of course, this wouldn't be right. After all, the film runs almost two hours, and a lot of people are waiting to be stung. After many deaths and a few explosions, Caine discovers the warning system of the military base is similar to the bees' mating call. This system is used to draw the swarm over the ocean, where they are burned to death with some oil set ablaze, placed there just for the occasion. THE SWARM is a poorly made and utterly laughable film that has gained a minor cult status with "bad film" fans, and there's an expanded video version that runs a whopping 156 minutes. Ultimately it was the studio that was stung by THE SWARM. Warner Brothers sunk $13 million into the production and another $8 million into advertising. All in all the film grossed only $10 million. Incredibly, costume designer Zastupnevich was nominated for an Academy Award.