Jeannie Devereux (Tovah Feldshuh) is still having nightmares from her experience in New Orleans. Her car, covered in killer bees, with her inside it, was slowly driven to the superdome. The temperature in the dome was reduced until all the bees went into hibernation. Then the bees were destroyed. All except one. Jeannie works for David Martin (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) at the National Bee Center. She is scheduled to take a vacation with her boyfriend, Nick Willis (Dan Haggerty). Their relationship is a little rocky at the moment and they need some time together.
Back at the Bee Center Paul Gladstone (Steve Franken) discovers hundreds of dead bees in one of the hives. He notifies his co-worker, Eli Nathanson (Bruce French), about the problem. It appears that an aggressive queen has taken over the hive. Her progeny is killing the weaker bees. While Eli is photographing the hive he is attacked and killed by the bees. Jeannie returns to the Bee Center to investigate and confirm that the killer bees are back. Nick is not happy that his vacation is once again postponed.
The bees in the hive are destroyed. The Center determines that three queen bees had been harvested from the hive and were sent to three different places. One is local so Jeannie and David intercept it before it can be delivered. Another was sent to New Mexico and the third to California. Since it is the 4th of July weekend there are no flights. Jeannie asks Nick to fly them to the other locations. They manage to destroy the New Mexico hive but when they get to California they run into a problem. The man who received the queen was transferring a load of beehives when he was attacked and killed by the killer bees. Now the hive is swarming and heading for a baseball field filled with people.
“Terror Out of the Sky” AKA” The Revenge of the Savage Bees” was released in 1978 and was directed by Lee H. Katzin. It is a made for television science fiction eco-horror movie and a sequel to 1976 television film “The Savage Bees”.
Changes were made for the sequel. In the original film, Gretchen Corbett played Jeannie Devereux. Some of the closing scenes for the first movie were used for the opening of the sequel. Close-ups of Gretchen in the car were reshot using Tovah. In the sequel, Jeannie has a different boyfriend, played by Dan Haggerty. The only other returning character is Bruce French, who plays Eli Nathanson, one of the workers at the Bee Center.
The first film is probably the better film. The sequel has a couple grisly scenes. Especially horrific is the sound of a dog’s screams when he is being attacked by the bees. Other than that, it was less interesting. The forced love triangle aspect was a bit silly, and the vehicle encased by bees was already done in, not only the first movie, but as the beginning sequence of this movie. The best acting was done by the bees. It wasn’t horrible by any means but just a little less entertaining than the first movie. I think the changes in the cast and characters did a lot to make the sequel difficult to get into.
Once again bee wrangler Norman Gary was the bee handler for the film. He was also the man driving the truck full of hives that crashed. Norman also worked on the first film, “The Savage Bees”.