To give one an idea of the kind of film this is, and the kind of audience it attracts (this reviewer included), the ‘Alternate versions’ section of Invasion of the Bee Girls’ IMDb page contains this gem: “The recent MGM DVD is missing footage. Part of the scene where Beverly Powers…seduces her man is missing, deleting some of her nudity…The MGM version looks the best this low-budget film has ever looked, but the missing footage rankles.” That’s someone who feels robbed. Modern viewers are denied that particular set of breasts, yes, but there are plenty more in this exploitation classic.
Written by Nicholas Meyer, in his first screen credit, and directed by Denis Sanders, Invasion of the Bee Girls is not a meandering affair with some gratuitous nudity thrown in here and there. It has a plot and it sticks to it. But unless one watches the trailer beforehand or reads a review like this, it’s hard to tell what’s going on until about the last half hour or so. Is it horror? Sci-fi? A mystery? It’s clearly exploitation, though, and I can’t imagine drive-in audiences of the 1970s caring about anything else.
The men of Peckham, California have been dropping dead like flies. Autopsies reveal that all the men died from heart failure related to extreme exertion during sexual intercourse. Yep, that’s the conceit of this film. Men die screwing the young nubile Bee Girls of the title.
One of the dead works at a research lab funded by the government, so an investigator, Neil Agar (William Smith) is dispatched from Washington to aid local cop Captain Peters (Cliff Osmond) in finding out what’s happening. For an hour of running time, little clue is afforded either Agar or we viewers. There’s a procession of deaths and nudity, but no cause given, until Agar makes an incredible leap of logic and 
concludes that genetic mutation is causing some mystery women to behave like queen bees, trying over and over again to become inseminated, and killing the town’s menfolk in the process. Agar’s investigation goes from zero to a hundred in that moment, defying many laws of narrative consistency, but so what? This movie is not about the plot. It’s about marching from one set of breasts to the next.
At the risk of reducing the female cast to objects, something already done by the movie itself, those breasts belong to Anitra Ford as Dr. Susan Harris, the prime suspect for the science behind the Bee Girls; Victoria Vetri as Julie Zorn, secretary and love interest of Agar; Katie Saylor and Anna Aries as widows who are kidnapped and transformed into Bee Girls (the latter in the most extensive and kitschy nude scene in the film); and the aforementioned Powers, among others.
Sanders and company knew the kind of film they were making, so none of it was taken seriously. There are elements of black comedy and satire spread throughout, but there wasn’t much in the way of self-aware satire. The misogyny seems to be in earnest, marring what would otherwise be a fine display of titillation and flesh. In short, there’s a better movie lurking somewhere inside this one, but that’s something that could be said for any number of films in the Watchability Index.
None of this prevents Invasion of the Bee Girls from being a memorable shitty movie watch. This is a prototypical exploitation flick. The female nudity keeps the animal brain engaged, while all the other b-movie accoutrements satisfy that itch we mutants have for bad acting, bad story, bad sets, bad everything, and all the familiar faces that go with it. This isn’t the most watchable flick, but it’s still shitty gold. Invasion of the Bee Girls takes over the #95 spot from Damnation Alley. It’s essential viewing for the shitty movie fan.